Gods of Gender-Bending
Gender fluidity and the ancients
Summer is here, the season of Pride! Never has the celebration of diversity been more important in this dumpster-fire nation.
Speaking of gender fascism, what the malevolent forces running our nation do not want you to recognize is that the gender binary is a Western invention, imposed upon much of the world through the violence of colonization. Here are just two of many such examples: historically, in many African cultures, gender was not determined solely by anatomy. Some researchers say the Dogon of Mali may have traditionally worshiped intersex ancestral “teachers.” Meanwhile, in Hinduism, one of the world’s oldest religions, the god Ardhanarishvara is a combo of the male god Shiva and his female consort Parvati into a singular being, aka “the lord who is half woman.” Together, they represent a balance of two divine energies.
To prove the validity of the new racial and religious hierarchy, it was advantageous for white people to claim just two distinct genders, one of which should be petite and hairless. (For more on this, see the work of writer, performer, and fashion icon ALOK.)
The invention of the gender binary effectively marginalized, dehumanized, and/or erased everyone on the margins or in the in-between, including intersex and third gender folks with recognized roles in their cultures, such as the hijras of India and two-spirit people.
Yet the Heavens are full of androgynous gods
More gender-bending deities of past and present…
The Aztec god Ometeotl is also both male and female at once, with a name for each side. The god represents the creative, generative energy, the source of all divine power.
In ancient Egyptian mythology, Hapi is the divine personification of the annual flooding of the Nile. The god presents both male and female characteristics, as symbols of fecundity.
Even the macho men of the North included gender-bending in their sacred stories. Odin, the All-Father, is considered somewhat “womanly” for his practice of seidr, a kind of sorcery known as a woman’s art. But the biggest boundary-crosser is Loki, the shapeshifting trickster. Loki transforms into various animals, and sometimes a woman too. In one tale, he and Thor dress as a handmaid and bride as part of a half-baked scheme to recover a stolen necklace and save Freya.
(Unsurprisingly, some “Viking” graves contain a mix of gendered objects, like jewelry and weapons, providing evidence of gender-bending priests and possibly shieldmaidens.)
Inari, a widely popular Japanese kami, has no fixed gender or image. Instead, Inari is symbolized by a fox and takes many forms, including an old man, a young girl, and a serpent.
Several Yoruba gods are androgynous, including Esu Elegba, the (god)dess of the crossroads, and the Sky Father Obatala, who has no fixed gender.
Mawu Lisa is the Dahomey creator (god)dess, a dual deity with masculine and feminine attributes.
A symbol of the Church of Satan and the Satanic Temple, Baphomet is a goat-headed god figure, with horns and wings, and both male and female secondary sexual characteristics. Many neopagans revere Baphomet as an embodiment of binary opposites—”as above, so below.”
Is there a particular connection between queerness and the divine?
Many scholars posit queer people, occupying an in-between state, have always served in sacred roles as seers, priests, shamans, and others. In some cases, some semblance of queerness has been a job requirement. The priests of Mesopotamian Ishtar/Inanna, a goddess known to change a person’s sex, were likewise androgynous, with both masculine and feminine features. The revered enaree priests of the gender-bending Scythian goddess Artimpasa were androgynous, yet all assigned male at birth.
As we celebrate our differences and diversity this summer, let us remember there’s nothing new under the sun, not even dildos. Historically, gender fluidity is the constant; it’s binary gender that’s outside the norm.
Further Reading
Queer as Folklore by Sacha Coward
So interesting! This reminds me of the only god I've been tempted to worship since I left my childhood religion: Nahadoth, from N.K. Jemisin's Inheritance trilogy.