Two-Spirits

The final paper that I wrote this year was my research paper on the two-spirit tradition in many Native American nations. The language and reverence surrounding this identity and tradition emphasizes the fluidity of gender, a concept almost unimaginable to those brought up in Eurocentric society, where there is a strict social enforcement of the gender binary. In my paper, I argue that adopting Native American societies’ fluid approach to gender would be an important first step in dismantling this binary, though an unlikely one.

Sadly, given that I do not own any white boards at home, I was not able to do my routine of filling up a large white board with my planning notes, so I had to create a less exciting version of this on a piece of paper. It’s disappointing, but it serves the same function: