The Origin of Gender

[intro music]

When I hear the word "binary,"

my mind immediately jumps to "gender"

and "80s movies about computers."

And that's because outside
of meaning something

that has two sides or two parts,

"binary" is often linked to the concept

of there are two
genders in the world

and every person falls squarely
into one of these two categories.

And since lots of you
"Origin of Everything" fans

write in with questions and comments

about things related
to gender and gender norms,

I wanted to spend this
week getting down into

an abbreviated history
of how we got to the idea

of binary gender,

what the heck some of the differences
between gender and sex are,

how those two categories became linked,

and why we started
associating different tasks in society

along the gender divide,

with certain behaviors
being ascribed to masculinity,

and others to femininity.

Okay, so we have a lot
to cover and very little time

but the natural place
to start here seems to be,

So to start things off
in something of an order,

from concrete to abstract,

human sex is usually linked

to biological and
physical traits of the body.

These can include reproductive organs,

hormones,

chromosomes,

with the old wisdom being that
"xx" chromosomes signal females,

while "xy" chromosomes
are indicative of males,

outward appearance of the genitalia,

and secondary sex characteristics,

which kick in around puberty for humans.

These traits include things like:

growing breasts,

getting hairy,

or producing all that
lovely oil and grease

that makes our pits stink and our
T-zones shine bright like a diamond.

Although these are the ways
that sex is determined or identified,

it also involves a fair bit of fluidity.

For example, there are
people who are intersex,

meaning that they share
a variety of these traits

across the sexual divide.

People can have "xx"
chromosomes associated with women,

but present in most other
ways as male, and vice versa.

It's also possible to
have a mixture of these traits

that aren't easily quantifiable

and don't align neatly
with male or female designations.

Although, in some of these cases,
there are parents

and health care providers
who choose an assigned sex

for a child born with
a mixture of traits at birth.

But while sex is mostly
considered biological,

gender is its more loosely defined cousin.

(on screen)

And more often than not,

we link gender to both outward behaviors

and internal ideas about ourselves.

A good example of
performing gender in society

would be a statement like,

"All girls' favorite color is pink."

The first assumption is that "girl"
lines up with "female sex"

and the second is that
given the choice, most, if not all,

girls will not only choose
pink as their favorite color,

but will also be naturally predisposed
to liking pink over other colors.

But this idea confuses
cultural conditioning

with a presumed biological determinism.

And if you want more on
"pink for girls" and "blue for boys,"

then this is the perfect time
to hop on over to our video

on gendered clothing
for a deeper explanation.

Gender also blossoms outward
into other areas of our lives,

and is often used as a
measure for a sexual desire,

behavior and societal roles.

We also apply gender
pretty widely and often

even to concepts in inanimate objects,

more so than biological sex.

Take, for example,
some Indo-European languages

like Spanish, German and Latin,

where gender is used
to conjugate certain verbs,

or attached to nouns and pronouns.

So while both sex and gender are
not hard and fast across the board,

both are more often
than not linked together

and then described
to us using two choices:

Male sex aligning with masculine gender,

and female sex aligning
with feminine gender.

But while the concept
of two sexes and two genders

is ingrained in us as the cultural norm,

this hasn't always been universally true.

That leads us to our next question.

Well, in fact, outside the West,
many cultures and countries

have a history that recognizes
either gender fluidity

or gender categories
that exist beyond the binary.

Prior to colonization, the Incas
worshipped a dual-gendered god,

whose attendants, the quariwarmi,
wore androgynous clothing

and represented a third gender space.

Among the Sakalavas of Madagascar,

boys who were considered
feminine in appearance

were raised as girls, and believed
to have supernatural protection

that prevented them from being harmed.

In Hawaii, Kanaka Maoli
indigenous societies had the Mahu,

who could be aligned
with any biological sex,

but expressed a gender role
that was in between

masculine and feminine.

And the Burrnesha of Albania are women
who have sworn a vow of chastity

and dress as men,

a tradition that dates
back as far as the 1400s,

although their numbers have
dwindled dramatically in recent years.

So the concept of more
than two genders has existed

and still exists worldwide.

But concepts that biological
sex and gender could be fluid

also existed in parts of western Europe.

Prior to the 18th century

and the rise of Enlightenment
thinking in Europe,

there was a theory that men
and women's reproductive organs

could belong to a common sex,

even though they were assigned
to different gendered roles.

So there was one sex, but two genders.

In the 2nd century AD,
Greek physician Galen noted,

That's right.

He was of the opinion
that women were essentially

men with penises that had been
flipped up inside of their bodies

and not fully developed,

and vice versa on
the male side of things,

which isn't so kooky
when you consider that

physicians at that time also
believed that women's "female hysteria"

was caused by wandering wombs.

And while this wasn't
a universally held belief,

the idea that male and
female reproductive organs

were somehow two sides of the same coin

persisted until the Renaissance.

And, just like class,
gender was given a hierarchy

and attached to ideas
about innate qualities.

So someone of high birth
was considered inherently better

than someone from a lower class.

And the same went with gender,

which valued masculine
traits and behaviors over all else.

And the category of gender was
also linked with emerging categories

such as race,
and long-held beliefs, like class.

So white male or
masculine folks of high birth

placed themselves
at the top of the pyramid

and created complex
systems that trickled outward

from that center point.

But that doesn't mean
that there weren't alternatives

that existed across complex
societies prior to colonization.

With the dawn of Enlightenment thinking

and the resulting revolutionary
uprisings around the world,

think American revolution,

Haitian revolution,

and the French revolution,
to name a few,

we start to see language
about the rights of man

that looked to upset
one key part of the hierarchy:

Class as it was associated
with free, voting white men.

Class that had been
entrenched in societies

that held up an aristocracy
based on rank and high birth

had a major upset.

But all of this language
about men having rights

wasn't thinking
of the universal term of "man",

meaning "all human beings",

as it was in the past,

but rather specifically linked
to race, gender and sex.

So it's in the 18th and 19th century
that we start to see

a further codification
of these accepted binaries,

even though concepts of them
existed prior to this point.

According to Alberto Alesina,
Paolo Giuiliano and Nathan Nunn

in their article, "On the Origins of
Gender Roles: Women and the Plough,"

some of this may be broken down
to the assignment of labor roles.

They found that:

So societies that spread
more traditional agricultural roles,

as a whole, had less gender equality

and leaned towards a belief

that men and women
occupied different spheres

than those that did not.

It comes as no surprise then,
that with the rise of colonization,

which often looked
to regulate and standardize

farming practices
across different regions,

that we also see a solidification
of gender roles becoming the norm.

This is also coupled with the fact
that often people in colonized regions

were severely punished
for expressing any gender,

sex, or sexual expression
outside of the accepted norm

of two genders and two sexes.

But the word "gender" started
circulating in academic discourse

and broader cultural discussions

around the midpoint of the 20th century

as everyday people began
to push back openly and critically

about the role that
gender played in their lives.

We see all of these conversations
about gender and gender norms

playing crucial roles in the movements
for LGBTQIA rights and visibility,

civil rights and feminist critique.

So, how does it all add up?

While this episode
was kind of a tall order,

and gender is a massive and complex topic,

I hope this gave a rough sketch
to start your search process

and enliven your debates.

There are a lot of other trains
I could have covered like,

"gender and religion"
or "gender and class,"

or "gender and class and religion
and race and even more labor,"

but condensed it here for time.

So, it still bears repeating that this is
just one of many threads in the story,

and gender is still circulating
in our everyday lives,

from which color you paint
your newborn's bedroom,

to which box we check off
for our licenses at the DMV.

So, what do you think?

Anything to add to
my binary-gender timeline?

Drop those comments down below

and I'll see you here soon
for our next episode.