WE ARE NOT A PHASE -- The 'Hidden' History of Gender Divergence & Non-binary Folks

[@kiyakiya4075]

Loved this video so much! I wanted to mention the Mahu people in Native Hawaiian and Tahitian cultures, they are third gender people with traditional spiritual and social roles within the culture. Similar to indigenous cultures that you mentioned in your video. What I find so amazing is how similar “third gendered” people are viewed so similarly even amongst groups of people who were never in contact with eachother during those times. And how loving, open minded and accepting they were. They didn’t see them as a threat. It warms my heart and makes me sad how colonization, religion and other shit really fucked everything up. Such beautiful cultures destroyed. People need to get out of there limited mindset that was placed on society and realize that humans are not black and white, there is so much color and depth. And then get mad when people don’t fit into a box that we were never meant to be in. We have always existed and we always will because who we are is NOT a mistake. It’s natural and very much normal and I think the sooner people can see that the better. Other wise I think they live a pretty sad and limiting experience. Anyways thanks for this amazing video! We need more content like this in general.

[@MxMorphling]

Such beautiful words I couldn't agree more! Thanks for telling me about them that's very interesting! We have a lot to learn from how they treated eachother, with kindness and respect. And I'm glad you liked the video! Feel free to let me know if there's any other topics you'd like me to cover in a video like this ✨

[@kathyroux7386]

“I am that I am. I am not accountable to mortals.” A philosophy, just two sentences long, to help me as I transform into the me I have always been inside. Wonderful, well researched video. Thank you!

[@MxMorphling]

Also one of my fave quotes from my research! Gonna be using that in the future 😂 thank you for watching and commenting and glad ya liked the video ✨ best of luck on your journey!

[@ellis7796]

Love this video! For the mention of Joan of Arch, I think it's important context that she wore men's clothing to avoid being r*ped in prison. Not that she couldn't be nonbinary, just that the clothing choice was for her safety, not self-expression

[@MxMorphling]

Thankyou! Yeah I guess I was showing gender nonconformity in a lot of this video so I thought I'd include her! I did read about this recently, gender nonconformity for safety has been really prevalent in history and if anything could be a whole other video, I'll look into it some more!

[@uarestrong76]

You might really enjoy this academic text I read recently on medieval haigiographies of trans and gender queer experiences of medieval saints and holy people. I think it's called transgender haigiographies or something

[@SkyeID]

Wonderful video! I'm nonbinary, and admittedly didn't know we had an awareness week! Thank you so much for giving this history to the world, and for making me feel less alone. I'm excited about the Isle of Ataraxia, and I've just DM'ed you.

[@MxMorphling]

Thankyou! I only found out halfway through last week hence why the video is a bit late XD I'm glad ive made you feel less alone, thanks for commenting and letting me know I'm not alone too. Speak to you over on Instagram! ✨

[@uarestrong76]

Wonderful job! GenderQueer History is something I like to research because I sometimes struggle with how not visible fluid people like me are.

[@Meeko4eve39]

I enjoyed the content of the video, but I want to talk more about the style/format of the video. And I hope it doesn't come across as something that is meant as a compliment but isn't well-received on the other end... I understand that what I find comfort in and appreciate can sometimes be seen as an "only you would consider this a good thing" kinda thing. If you happen to not find the following particularly positive/flattering, please know that at least my intention behind leaving the comment anyway was that I still wanted to convey that I very much appreciated the video - even if the reason why I appreciated it may not be perceived as a flattering one! Alright, so with that out of the way here goes: I immensely enjoyed this mostly audio format video because your voice and choice of words/writing style is just absolutely delightful to listen to! It made me feel all cozy inside like when I listen to a really good audiobook, which is an activity that gives me a lot of comfort because I've been an avid listener of audiobooks since childhood. Similarly it also reminded me of listening to tracks on museum audio guides, which also immediately made my heart burst with joy because it makes me remember very fond childhood memories 😃 I know that that is probably a very "me" thing. I get that "Your voice reminds me of museum audio guides" is probably not what the average person would consider a compliment 😄 But please know that I absolutely mean it as a compliment because memories of those museum visits are just as much a happy place of mine kinda thing as the audiobook thing^^ So I guess what I'm saying is that (1) your voice is super pleasant to listen to and (2) because of that I, for one, wouldn't be opposed to other videos of this style being released, should that ever happen again in the future 😃

[@MxMorphling]

Thanks you so much I'm glad you enjoyed the video and liked the style! I'll definitely do more like this in the future!! And I take that as a big compliment and I even used to work in a museum and was a guide/receptionist so I always learned all the info to tell people✨

[@Meeko4eve39]

@@MxMorphling Oh that is so cool!!! And I'm definitely looking forward to future videos like this then ☺️

[@fallenp1ne]

thank you for making this!! maybe its just me its not working for, but the google drive link to your references says error 403 forbidden when i open it, do you think you could fix that? it would be helpful to have a list of the references for the future possibly when explaining nonbinary to family members

[@MxMorphling]

Hey I'll get that fixed for ya! Must be me not setting my permissions correctly or something. Glad you enjoyed the video 🫶🏻✨

[@MxMorphling]

I've now fixed it, the link should take you to the google drive file ✨

[@fallenp1ne]

@@MxMorphling thank you so much!! :)

[@PlurCo]

❤

[@MxMorphling]

💜

[@noah1502]

what you're pointing out is gender non-conformity. societies throughout history, including this current one, have sexist gender roles attached to males and females, and when you act outside those roles people say youre "not a man" or "not a woman" which is regressive and sexist! most of those societies were also extremely homophobic and saw feminine gay men as "not men" or "like women". thats sexist, regressive, and homophobic. but because you like the idea of gay men you're going to pretend thats not the case. ok.

[@MxMorphling]

I did mention that a lot of this was linked to gender-nonconformity in the video, especially nonconforming to western standards; but also this could apply within their own societies as trans/third gender or queer individuals make up a small percentage of any population, so I think this was their way of explaining those occurrences in their language. I also mentioned that they could be referring to homosexuals in some cases rather than describing identity. But from my research it does appear that a lot of these individuals and societies respected third gender identities above just how they expressed or what they did in society. I'm not saying all of these cultures had perfect ideals of gender or sexuality equality, but I don't think it's fair to say that all of this was just descriptions of "gay men". I made this video to show that non-conforming identities and expressions or gender divergence has been noted throughout history. One thing that is important to remember is the discourse on the translation of those words to English as a lot of western and modern researchers have translated or written history in a biased way due to the western binary mindset. I'd recommend reading the book "The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses" that I mentioned in the video, it discusses this in length saying that often when you know of gender in the western sense, you see gender in everything. So yes words could be referring in some cases to queer people and their expression but many writings speak more deeply on gender divergence of identity itself, not just expression or roles. As of 'homophobia in history', that's another video entirely.