In ancient Hinduism, the physical
manifestation of gender has always been considered something temporary. In the
1st chapter of the book ‘Karmasutra
The Karma of Sex’, I have mentioned the ancient Mahabharata (Hindu-epic) story
of Shikhandi, a princess who takes
birth subsequently in a male physical form, to achieve her objective of taking
revenge from Bheeshma, although mentally
she is still a woman. There are other examples too. Lord Vishnu easily takes the form of
beautiful Mohini and steals nectar
from the hands of demons. The ancient form where Lord Shiva merges into his
consort Parvati and assumes the form of half-woman and half-man Ardhanarishwara, is another beautiful
example which depicts the fluidity of gender.
Such examples are difficult to
find in the Quran or the Bible. In the West, in the Christian tradition, gender
has by and large, always been considered sacrosanct – like time and space. Gender
change or people behaving different to their originally ‘designed’ gender has
been frowned upon in the Bible. The Biblical verse Deuteronomy 22:5 says quite
unambiguously “A woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man put on a
woman's cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your
God.”
In the Old Testament of the
Bible, gender roles are clearly stratified. For example, Genesis 2:18 says “….Lord God said, “It is not good that the
man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”” Similarly, in Genesis 3:16 “To the woman he (God) said, “I will surely
multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.””
As we progress further into the Bible
New Testament, things seem to be slightly better for women, with the promise of
equality in salvation. For example, in Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor
Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you
are all one in Christ Jesus”.
In the last century, in the West,
there has been much improvement in this whole outlook towards the female
gender. Starting from women’s suffrage and equality before law, the West has
started to accept that gender and the roles based on gender dictated by religious
mores are best left to books. Women have increasingly taken up every kind of
job previously the sole preserve of men. For example, today in many parts of the world,
there are women in roles such as lorry drivers, taxi drivers, soldiers in
frontline combat, fighter plane pilots, heavy crane operators and ladies
working as prison wardens inside male prisons.
In most other non-Catholic denominations, women have also acquired many
church leadership positions.
For various reasons, Islamic
societies have been many steps behind. In countries like Saudi, women still
have to be accompanied by men while travelling, or they could be arrested. In
order to travel abroad, they need permission from the male head of the family. In
many Islamic countries, the women is not considered the equal to man in the
eyes of law. In Pakistan, for example, as
per the Hudood ordinance introduced during the Zia regime, a female victim of
rape must produce four male witnesses to support her accusation. If she fails
to do so, she could be punished for adultery, which again, is a crime in Islam.
In other words, the whole onus is on the accused to produce four witnesses,
that too males who have witnessed her being raped. Otherwise the victim could become the
convicted criminal. What gross injustice!!
Even in non-Islamic so-called democratic
countries such as India, Nepal or Sri Lanka, despite their ancient Eastern influence/traditions,
at least in the rural areas and in small towns, the societal norms for women
are rather stringent. For example, there
is still a loss of reputation in the society for a family whose daughters
travel to and from the house after dark.
On the contrary, in Western
developed societies, the acceptance of gender role reversals has gone up by
leaps and bounds, to the extent that there is acceptance that men can also take
up tasks, meant exclusively for women earlier. This acceptance, backed by law
has resulted in far-reaching changes in public attitudes and ideas about
gender. The recent story in Time
magazine about a transgender brother of a reputed author breastfeeding the baby
created a sensation. There was another similar story in the Guardian. The idea
of a man breastfeeding a baby was still shocking to some, while to many, it was
a sign of our modern times. If women can do the tasks assigned for men, why can’t
men opt for some of the biological tasks reserved for women such as bearing a
baby or breast-feeding?
This slow acceptance is not
related to acceptance of gender roles. We are also beginning to accept that the
physical features that define different genders are also not set in stone. The
story of the bearded lady Harnaam Kaur from Slough, UK is a case in point.
After struggling with bullying, feelings of inferiority and shame for years,
she has slowly transformed into a fashion icon in London.
This is also perhaps a step
forward in gender equality. If men have the choice of retaining the beards or
looking clean and well-shaven, why should the same choices not be available to
women, especially those who happen to have hair growth? Some women have also decided to make a
statement about their equality by refusing to shave their armpit hair, even
when they wear sleeveless clothes.
But if medical sciences kick
start their fast-track innovations, in a similar way to what has happened in
computing and electronics, perhaps we can really see a world in not-so-far future
where gender becomes a fluid and transient identity factor for every
human. Large numbers of people might opt
to stay as men for some periods of their lives and then remain women for the
remaining part of their lives (or vice-versa). It may also happen that large
numbers of people might even choose to keep switching their genders every few
years like they might switch their cars, dresses or mobile phones. When this happens, the whole militant
feminism movement may lose some of its steam, simply because if a woman does
not like what she is, she can easily switch to become a man. Similarly, if a
man does not like it among men, he can opt out of that gender. Some people might even choose to remain
hermaphrodites, since it might give them more flexibility in sexual matters.
Most government forms may be forced to remove gender as one factor of
identification or may have a query which reads ‘what is your present gender?’
or ‘what gender would you like to declare yourself to be?’
The present thinking of gender as
something written in stone must go. The story of Shikhandi’s gender change in Mahabharata across different births
will start happening in a single lifetime for many. To all those who seek
spiritual guidance in these times of changing paradigms, the ancient Hindu
image of Ardhanarishwara should be a
guiding futuristic allegory in matters related to gender.
©Staju Jacob, 2017.
Staju Jacob is the author of the path-breaking book Karmasutra The Karma of Sex, which deals with the karmic spirituality of consensual sexual actions. This book is available globally on various Amazon sites in Paperback and Kindle, Sony Kobo, Google books, Iphone Ibook etc. He may be contacted on Twitter @KaRmasutraTKOS
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