How Ancient Mythologies Defy the Gender Binary | Fate & Fabled

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Creation, transformation, and the quest for self-knowledge – these are universal themes that appear across world mythology. But there’s another common thread within these tales: gender fluidity. It’s not only commonplace in many mythologies, but an essential aspect of some important mythical figures: from androgynous creators and fertility deities to warriors and prophets that defy the gender binary.

Hosted by Dr. Moiya McTier & Dr. Emily Zarka, FATE & FABLED explores the stories and characters of mythologies from all around the world - why they came to be and how they impact us still today.

Hosts: Emily Zarka, PhD & Moiya McTier, PhD
Writer: Iseult Gillespie
Director: David Schulte
Executive Producer: Amanda Fox
Producer: Thomas Fernandes
Editor / Animator: P.W. Shelton
Assistant Editor: Jordyn Buckland
Illustrator: Sophie Calhoun
Script Consultants: Curran Nault, PhD & PJ Raval
Script Editors: Emily Zarka, PhD & Moiya McTier, PhD
Fact Checker: Yvonne McGreevy
Additional Footage: Shutterstock
Music: APM Music
Executive in Charge (PBS): Maribel Lopez
Director of Programming (PBS): Gabrielle Ewing

Fate & Fabled is produced by Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios.
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As a history teacher, I say again and again that there is nothing new under the sun. We are all human and experience the same issues. Just as soon as we learn the lessons and let people live and love who they want, we forget those lessons and have to learn them all over again. Love this series and light it sheds!! 😁

BrynnKelly
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As a kid who read a lot of mythology, finding stories like Sikhandi and Tiresias were really important to me. I was able to recognize my non-binary self in these stories, and that gave me a lot of hope that my identity was good & worthy of respect.

iriandia
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I was worried that I would look down to the comments section of this video and find it an ugly place, but it is so very heartening to see it is largely filled with positivity.

There is indeed nothing new under the Sun (deities), but the history we learn about is shaped by the narrative of the ones telling it. Decolonizing history is a long and difficult process, but important work to do. Thanks for helping tackle a piece of it.

TheGFeather
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In the Philippines (also Austronesian like Hawaii and Samoa), the third gender (the bayok or asog - feminine men) usually became shamans (the baylan, a profession which is usually exclusively for women). This is true as well in shamans of pre-Abrahamic Indonesia and Malaysia. It was believed that it was innately easier for spirits of the "third gender" to leave their bodies and journey to the spirit "otherworld" because they possessed both the clashing masculine and feminine attributes. In the same way that women were usually the shamans because they had the innate ability to contain another spirit (as mothers), and thus it was easier for them to be mediums for other spirits. The asog were treated as women, differentiated only by their inability to bear children, which is the source of their namesake which literally means "impotent" or "infertile".

Of the spirits, nature spirits tied to places and natural phenomena or spirits representing abstract concepts (like mountains, fertility/agriculture, the moon, etc.) were also usually androgynous or genderless since they were inhuman. Lakapati being the most succinct example. They weren't even really worshiped (they weren't "gods" per se), since they were too inhuman to usually care about human affairs, though at times they were appeased or asked permission from.

An exception are the "free" spirits which had independent existence. Most similar to elves and fairies of European folklore, the "other" people who lived in the spirit world. "Those who are unlike us." They, on the other hand, had genders. Though presumably, like humans, they too had a "third gender".

AngryKittens
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I do not have the words to express how happy this video made me. I'm a nonbinary History undergrad, and mythology has been one of my main interests for as long as I can remember. This channel has been one of my favorites ever since the very first episode of Monstrum, but you guys managed to make me enjoy not only the channel itself, but mythology as a whole, even more. Thank you so, so much! 🥰

wholsomyr
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Splendid video, learned a lot! I wish there were talk about Norse mythology too, maybe Loki's genderfluidity is common knowledge by now but Odin's remains obscure. Odin had a perpetual thirst for knowledge and that expressed itself in an interest to master as many skills as possible. One of these skills was magic, and in particular seiðr, a practice that was considered emasculating for men to concern themselves with. If Loki's words are to be believed in the Lokasenna, Odin also had a habit of taking the shape of a woman to tell fortunes.
If one approaches more contemporary tales, there's the lovely Romanian fairytale Ileana Simziana, also known under names such as The Princess Who Would be a Prince and The Girl Who Pretended to be a Boy. It follows the unnamed protagonist, assigned female at birth, taking on a male role to serve an emperor, save his daughter and complete a couple of quests. During one of these quests, stealing Holy Water guarded by nuns, the monk who takes care of the church that housed the water prays to God to curse the thief by changing their sex. The protagonist does not consider this change to be a curse at all and marries the emperor's daughter

smultronpojke
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In the territory of Chile and Argentina lives the Mapuche. Their spiritual guide and one of the most important figures in their society and culture are the Machis, people with their own gender, with aspect of both female and male. All mapuche's cosmology is very interisting and you guy should make a video about if you can.

OfelialaLoca
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Thanks for taking some time to dispell this idea that non-binary people are some new invention! It was super interesting to see how ancient cultures interpreted gender socially and religiously! Happy pride :)

Austib_
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Throwback to when Loki, god of mischief in nordic mythology, turned into a mare, to distract a jætte/giants stallion from doing it's job, and 9 months later came back with an 8 legged foal whom he gifted to Odin. I love that nordic mythologi also to some extent has had a god with nonbinary/genderfluid tendencies.

mingoxu
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As a trans man that loves learning history and culture, it's unexplainable how happy this video made me. Pure euphoria!

xav
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When I was 17 I was in a production of Antigone for my drama class. I was cast as Tiresias even though I am afab and presented very femininely at the time. My teacher said in passing that I didn't have to play Tiresias as a man, so later I asked him, "what gender am I supposed to be?" He replied, "prophet, " so then and there I decided that my version of Tiresias was nonbinary. I had such a fun time playing Tiresias in the play.
A few years later, I realized I was nonbinary, and later found out about Tiresias's gender-fluidity. I was amazed that my interpretation of the character was so close to the truth!

shinekitten
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That was a few pieces of the puzzle. Why it's considered such a controversial topic has often boggled my mind. Also acknowledging that it wasn't and still isn't western cultures that discriminate or have reshaped ancient ideas is another piece that I believe requires critique in the same respectful and factual way you presented the information in this video. The fluidity of the Masculine and Feminine within all of us; finding balance and living authentically is a wonderful goal for all of us. Whether the masculine leads us more or visa versa should not be seen as a sense of shame or blame but rather one piece of the puzzle that is the whole of us. We are more than just the sum of one aspect or idea of ourselves.

TheMichaelStott
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As someone who grew up Hindu, I never really knew about Hijra (hell, I don't even know how best to refer to them). Which f-ing sucks. Like, I knew they existed tangentially, but that was only from learning about it online. My parents never brought them up, I never heard any stories about them (like, that thing in the Ramayana? Yeah. I didn't know that existed before this video), and even though I was put in a religion class, they weren't mentioned at all. I did know there are such groups that are pretty shunned by society, but I never knew just how old/integral they were (I don't even know if these are the same groups as in history or if there's any continuity between them).

And about Shikhandi, I was always taught they were a woman. Like, in their previous life, they were a woman and in their next life they were born as a woman but later on their body was changed to that of a male. Despite that tho, everyone knew they were born a woman and that was used to help win a battle (it's complicated), which is a bit of a yikes. No one every really referred to them as non-binary and/or intersex, and any transgender implications were ignored or written off as divine intervention. Which also f-ing sucks.

llsilvertail
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My many many thanks to you for recognizing open minded Hindu ideas on gender fluidity and acceptance

dhaval
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This was really cool. There’s a number of African deities (beyond Egypt. I know I sound like a broken record), one could add to this discussion of gender-fluidity & “acceptance beyond the binary”. One of them that comes to mind is a major deity of the Orisha pantheon, named Obatala. “They” or “Obatala Obanla”, “Obatala female paths”, “a female ancestor of Obatala”. From YorubaLand to Brazil, the Caribbean & onward. This Orisha traditionally being a gender or sex fluid being. Obatala is traditionally credited with being the sculptor of human bodies, the ordained crafter of humanities’ design-plan. With that being said, the three major cisgender female Orishas being Yemoja (pronounced “Yemaya” across Latin America), Oshun & Oya are integral to human-creation & procreation. Them being beside a “male” Orisha who is so strongly associated with feminine creation power. Obviously there being some contradictory traditional myths & poems within the Itan, as is the case in a number of religions globally. Yemoja is “the metaphysical mother of all Orishas”, she is “the mother of humankind” associated with all stages of pregnancy, amniotic fluids, the moon, etc. In one of the traditional Yoruba creation stories Yemoja using her waters, was responsible for making the mud or clay that Obatala would use to sculpt humanities’ form, hence her title of “being the mother of humankind”. Olodumare (god) then giving the first human-forms spirit, aka immortal-souls. Oshun is many things, the mother of the Orisha Ibeji (multiple births), often associated with female sexual-autonomy, a divine-messenger to Olodumare, etc, but she is also the “sustainer or savior of humanity”. Through her power of rain she saved humanity from the misogyny of male Orishas, in one of the traditional stories. Like Yemoja & Oshun, Oya is a major Orisha & is of many things that pertain to human life & creation. But especially since we are discussing gender, while not gender or sex fluid, Oya is a female warrior Orisha. Like Oshun’s sexual-autonomy which unfortunately is typically exclusive to men in our world, many might interpret Oya as being a living divine embodiment of gender based-limitations labeled on women, being broken. Oya is the “guardian of the gates of the Afterlife”, strongly associated with the Niger river, “sudden change”, storms etc. Like Obatala she is associated with justice. And in many traditional myths, she is the one that gave Alaafin Shango lightning or taught him how to use it.
PS: Yemoja is the paramount river Orisha in YorubaLand associated with the largest river in YorubaLand, the Ogun river. But across Latin America she is also traditionally acknowledged as the co-ruler of the oceans & seas along with her son Olokun (a being with possible roots outside of the Yoruba, being the Edo peoples of GreatBenin). This is because in oral tradition, Yemoja is said to have been the one Orisha that soothed & mourned millions of victims, as she followed the chattel-enslaved Africans (not just Yoruba) being kidnapped through the Atlantic across Spanish & Portuguese colonies such as but not limited to Brazil. I might have over did it. Hopefully this helped.

afrinaut
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Hey, Moiya's back! Also, wonderful topic! You didn't include Loki, but I feel like everyone knows about Loki by now... lol. For those who don't know, he became a mare, mated with a stallion, and gave birth to a foul in the original mythology. Loki has so many crazy kids, but this is the most "normal" of them; literally just a horse, albeit with eight legs

moongirl
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This is is a great overview and it really does make me sad that western colonization ruined the inclusive and rich understanding of the human experience of gender diversity, maybe one day de-colonization of myths and understanding of gender will be possible because it would be nice for the human rights of all people to be restored and respected globally

sheren_b
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So happy that the channel has started to dive more into mythological deities, PLENTY of content to tap into!

chinoobi
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Gender, like race, is one of those aspects of society that only exist because SOME people insist that it does exist (usually for some mechanism of control).

To me, defined (and enforced) gender "roles" such as child-rearing, hair length, beautification/fashion, food gathering & preparation, et al. are SILLY in reality because none of these things actually depend on your sex or sexuality preferences.

momogato
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Great video! It's kind of strange that the very late narrow Western notions of gender are considered inflexible now. Our ancestors would probably find this funny, and/or sad.

robbabcock_
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