Old School Christian

Now homosexuality is not a new phenomenon that has suddenly bloomed with the turn of the century relatively in similar timing with women’s gender role expansion.  No, indeed homosexuality was prevalent for many centuries, dating back to the ancient Japanese Samurai s of the past. In these relationships the master would have sexual relations with his male student as a form of intimacy, bonding, closeness and overall trust between master and student. Whether or not there was consent by both parties it is not fully known, however this practice was widely accepted by the Samurai culture.

As we go back even further and stop to take a look at the societies of the ancient Greeks and the ancient Romans we observe the presence of homosexuality and even the somewhat taboo nature of transsexual persons are explored. Now these homosexual acts may be of persons that are homosexual in heart and feeling acting out love upon one another or these may be a symbol of male dominance by sodomizing other persons, particularly during war. As we all know, this blogger was not in the past to witness these acts in person to decipher the true nature of them. Let me also add this disclaimer and state the obvious that all of the above is my interpretation of text and images that have been seen and read over time, the accuracy of these documents are pending upon the creator of those documents in regards to historical accuracy.

What I believe to be true and in fact is the word of the bible. Now I also understand that, yes some books were taken out of the bible. Yes, possibly the bible has been used to manipulate people by religious figures in the past, maybe even the writers themselves while claiming to be in the spirit of GOD in which HE is the true author, may have even tampered with it. Then there’s the case of even if nothing has been tampered with, everything remained true as GOD assigned it to be, there is still the potential error of the wrong words being used in some places simply because of hundreds of years of translating the Bible from it’s original language to the many languages we have today.

 But, in spirit and in truth I believe the literal context of the Bible as what GOD made it out to be for Christians and everyone. Call me whatever, ignorant, foolish, anything, but old school Christian as I am I take the Bible literally and will still stick to its word.  Now, probably in hate mail mode and ready bite my head off let me illustrate my perspective. No, I’m not trying to call anyone ignorant or berate anyone as a fellow classmate has previously interpreted, I am simply making myself completely understood because there have been several occasions in which someone did not understand exactly what I was trying to say, so please take no offense.

The bible has taught me that homosexuality is wrong, eating pork, shrimp and other unclean things are incorrect, a woman must cover her head as she kneels down to pray, no premarital sex in relation to the marriage context of the past and present, that is basically no sleeping around if you don’t like ‘no-premarital sex’, and all of the other behavioral rules dictated to us. This does not mean that I hate homosexuals or condemn them, that would be the same rubbish of me saying I hate you because your not Christian, which I don’t.

I don’t think anyone will follow the bible rule for rule subconsciously; some of us eat pork, and or shrimp or other unclean things. Because my head is uncovered 75% of the time I pray doesn’t mean I’m a bad Christian, I’m personally just too lazy most of the time. Just because someone is gay doesn’t make them a bad person, in my eyes. Just because you claim to be Christian and have premarital sex doesn’t mean that your at a loss with your spirituality.

It is wrong is trying to condemn someone that doesn’t match up to the idealistic Christian because as far as I know there is not a perfect Christian. What is wrong as well is trying to alter the context of a religion to suit your opposing life style. Because I eat shrimp and crabs doesn’t mean that I must take it upon myself to alter the bible’s teaching in a way to show that eating unclean things is okay according to the gospel. Likewise the homosexual community should not try to manipulate the biblical doctrine and alter it to suit their homosexual lifestyle and basically take that rule out. Homosexuals and heterosexuals are equally wrong when they attempt manipulate the words of the Bible to suit their purposes or say that we cannot take the literal documentation because that was for a historical culture and thereby alter proper biblical teaching.

 I am an old school Christian, young as I am, and I try to seek the peace before adding to the conflict. I really don’t know if someone punched me in my right jaw if I would give them the left one over punching them back and more like the bible says, however I have no intention of manipulating the bible to suit me.  Some things are not for us to decide because according to my belief we will be judged by GOD individually when the time comes. Until then both parties should keep the peace without condemnation, altering and manipulating the word of GOD for whatever reason.

The Frames of Imagery

                   In order to live in a specific society freely, you must follow the laws of that society. Some laws remain unwritten and forever changing along with the social progressions of that society. For gender oriented behavior, there has always been a societal stigma for stepping against those unwritten laws. For a woman to behave more macho and masculine she may be called a lesbian, for a man to behave more feminine and dainty he is deemed gay. This may or may not be true, but these are based on social stigmas and stereotypes.  A lesbian may or may not act more masculine or feminine simply because of her sexual orientation. A gay man may or may not behave more feminine or masculine just because of his sexual orientation.  Now these issues of gender behavior are not only pertinent to sexuality but to our everyday lives from the beginning of time.

Every era has its gender roles and boundaries, however as anyone will know some rules have changed over time. Imagine going to a museum that contains only paintings regarding the history of gender. As we walk frame by frame, century by century will see different roles carried out by men and women, with different attire. Ignoring wealth or other economical statures what is common among men and women of this time. In the time of Jane Eyre, the few men that were deemed important enough to have portraits made of them shared the similar face of strength, and dignified, appearing as a master of whatever their trade. It was rare that women without nobility or of society were seen portraits. Of the few women, they were displayed fawning over men to find a wealthy suitor. Otherwise they were working as governesses, tavern maids, always in servitude to someone.

Let’s travel now to the series of portraits during World War II, of both army personnel and civilians. During this time soldiers were mostly men while nurses almost all women. If coloured photos from that time existed or were even prevalent you would notice that in civilian attire, there was a specific colour coding. Boys were not seen wearing pink or any other feminine appearing colour and wardrobe. Why, is that? In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the setting was between the summer of 1942 and the summer of 1943 at an American high school. Of the two main characters, Gene and Phineas, Phineas was the most likeable. The most free spirited, athletic and overall best person you wanted to hang around. In the novel Phineas was without wrong.

One day Phineas decides that he would wear a pink shirt. In the modern world that is nothing for a man to wear a pink shirt. Unfortunately back then when he wore the pink shirt he received many stares from the people that adored him. They even called him a ‘fairy’ which was a slang time of being gay, which was a stigma back then. Now it’s 2010 and wearing men wearing pink is not a problem.

Now our gender orientation has changed as we move to the picture frames of today.  Women are now equal to men in laws, rights, mentality and in the workforce. In fact several recent studies have shown that more women are employed than men. More women are graduating from universities, particularly with PhD degrees than men. Although there are more women in the workforce than ever before what are they’re career options?

 Just as in the past there are more female nurses than female doctors. There are more male doctors than male nurses. When driving past a construction zone the other day, there was a sign that read “Caution Men Working”, suggesting that only men were on their construction team. There are more male firefighters than female, more male truck drivers than female. Similarly there are more female, dental assistants, phlebotomist, OBGYN’s, teacher’s but not lecturers, areas that do not require as much physical strength than others and areas that compass of second best like scenarios like the nurse vs doctor situation.

But these are only a few portraits in a museum of our gender history and are not even the two sides of a coin but a part of the six sides of a die. Women have become the breadwinners in some families while men stay at home and raise the children. There are female electricians and male CNA’s. Therefore overtime our portraits will show a significant change, from one decade to another, but in the case of gender oriented roles and stigmas, they will always exist because it’s not like we’re all unisex anyways, are we?  

Time Travel Janet

Once upon a time there was a fictional girl named Jane. To many others she would have been deemed inhumane, because she was not really insane but rather the appearance of a societal stain. You see she was severely outspoken and a woman of her heart, a trait that her society would call a mistake.  She had will power and would act upon her will.

So with that brief identification let me ask you this question, if you could travel back in time, when would you go back to? I have to say that if a woman named Jane Eyre, living our modern world, was given that question and said that she would go to the Victorian Era, and we were somehow able to document her in that time period our results would indeed be Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre.

Now I understand that some of you may be lost or puzzled at this point with my first paragraph so please allow me to ever so clearly explain.  I believe that Bronte’s ambition in writing Jane Eyre was to convey that women of that time period had a voice, that they were not only made to posses talents such as singing, painting and the ability to play music. They did not only posses the ability to be a great arm candy of wealthy suitors or breeders to carry on the family lineage in servitude to their husbands. And they most certainly were not be stereotyped, characterized and placed into the box of social position because of the family they were born into or the wealth they achieved in life. No, she tried to illustrate in Jane Eyre that women can be the equals of men.

She attempted to convey that women had a mind that was both sensible and fully capable of anything that a man may be asked to undertake.  In a time that a Queen was the ruler of England and not a man, a Queen that went on to explore new worlds and enlarge the British Empire instead of acting as a consort to her husband and her country. In England progressive modernization, I would say that Bronte portrayed Jane as the modern women; a woman that fulfilled her role as a governess in its simplest form but also went above and beyond, a woman that explored her thoughts and feelings and exerted them in the correct context.

Jane Eyre is the modern woman; not only for the mid 1800’s but also for 2010. If we were to teleport a random woman off the streets into Jane time ( let’s assume that this woman happens to be familiar with all the customs and roles of Jane’s time), how do you think she would behave? I believe that she would be just as Jane was, of passion and spirit and vigor, not complacent to only live without full expression. To have a voice and say that I am a person too! I have feelings and emotions! I have intelligence and sensibility! I am not cattle! I am not a play thing that you can order as you please, decide to rape me with no qualms and treat me inferiorly simply because I was born with less wealth than others! I am a woman and I am your equal! Bronte attempted to convey all of this without having to uses some of the words I used.

One of the largest examples is with Jane’s relationship to Mr. Rochester and St. John. In both relationships she was dependant on these men for her lively hood until the later part of her relationship with each when she inherited her fortune.  The strong rift lays with her gender role being enforced by St. John, even when she was no longer dependant of him, however in order to please St. John she had to be compliant to him, she had to immediately drop German and learn Hindustani with him. She could not have much leisure over her mind and freewill with him. With Mr. Rochester, she was a governess in his house, however within employee lines to an extent she was free, happy and completely herself. Not held back because she had a uterus and he did not. In the end Jane chose Mr. Rochester and as far as we know lived contented for at least ten years.

This is not an in-depth view of this semi-triangular relationship however does begin to paint of picture of Bronte’s anti-gender control outlook.  

Gendered Anomaly

Unfortunately on the terms of intersexual gender I cannot reclose my answer to just one respective question. Instead I must give a response that has an answer that covers all three questions. In my personal stand point, a naturally born intersexual individual is born in a station that is figuratively analogous to a gender anomaly, my reason for this is at the end of my blog. In some cases, such with Dr. Georgina, it is felt that some intersexual persons are born into a body that is not representative of their gender identification. That is that they do not feel as though they belong to both sexes but of a singular gender that may not be represented by their body’s natural physical features. In cases like these as Dr. Georgina stated that it can be surgically corrected to a physical form that is identifiable by the person. This task of genderization for lack of a better term should not be carried out by parents. If required a law should be placed that prohibits parents from having their child undergo any operation until the child has reached puberty and a dominate gender is seen. Even then, surgery must be with held until the child is at an age in teenage adolescence that they have identified with the gender of their choice whether male or female. It must also be taken under consideration the possibility of the child not wanting any surgical change or a move to go to male or female. What if that person chooses to remain in their natural state as a transsexual being? That must be allowed as well. This however creates another series of inquires.


What of the people that remain in a naturally transsexual state? What of transsexual persons whose parents decided not to gender orientate their child until puberty when a dominate gender was indentified? Or when the individual themselves agree on a singular gender at what age that may be; what is the grammatically correct term to represent these persons? In all instances of a naturally transgendered person the wrong label may be placed. They may be called a girl, she, female and feminine, whilst feeling masculine oriented. Just as likely they may be called a boy, he, male and masculine whilst feeling feminine oriented. And for societal standards, these labels must be given because a person does not normally enter the world without gender. We simply do not say to a parent “You have a beautiful transsexual!” We say you have a beautiful girl or handsome son.

What of persons that decide to remain in their natural state of intersex? What is the grammatically correct term given to these persons? We cannot call these persons ‘it’ as so many misunderstanding societal person may say. The term ‘it’ sounds and feels degrading, insulting and a terrible way to identify a person. To give them the wrong gender is terrible as well as I stated previously. So how do we as a society help naturally intersexual gendered person gain their gender identity?

There must be understanding, and some compromises. To say that five genders are needed; ferms, merms, male, female, and herm, is somewhat it irrational. If a person is intersexual, they are simply intersexual whether a herm, merm, or ferm, because in all three of these cases it is a hermaphroditic blending of the genders that make the person intersexual to begin with. Not how much male physiology or anatomy they have while being a woman, or how much female physiology or anatomy they have while being a man. To say there is a need for three gender categories instead of two is somewhat more understandable; a category of male, female and intersexual. This third category is not foreseeable in the next ten years argumentatively for the simple notion that the transsexual population is not even a quarter of the Earth’s population and may only be recognized as gender anomaly that is usually correct by natural transsexual persons. If the transsexual population were to increase greatly where one in four person are transsexual, we would not see the anomaly, but the third sex simply because it is then normal.

A Woman's Gender

Pertaining to Devor’s text, of the five sexes I am and forever will be a woman. Pertaining to classification in modern society of what a woman is, I fit all qualifications. I was born with all of the anatomical, physiological and hormonal features and functions that would pertain to all women. I am one hundred percent straight and have complete sexual admiration for men in the common sense that individuals have for each other in a respectable manner. Although almost all straight women share similar if not the same views, sexual biological stand point and can be categorized from the above as all woman. Unfortunately in our society there is and may be forever the need to prove that we are real women.


By the term real woman, it is not only meant that your body looks and functions as a typical woman’s body would, but that you also act as a woman. Otherwise, you will be deemed to masculine, un-lady like or tomboyish. But what really and truly defines what a person can and cannot do because it is against their sex? As a woman I am allowed to wear dresses and skirts, to cry and feel emotional and express my many emotions. Strange emotions are almost always given away to the term premenstrual syndrome, therefore suggesting only women are emotional or hormonal. But is it okay if a man decides to give way to his feelings and cry while watching a sad movie or become emotional when he is sad? What about tears of joy when a male is happy at the birth of a puppy? To many including myself those actions are indeed un-manly.

He must toughen up and to suck up his tears is always what little boys hear when they fall off the swings or their pet suddenly dies. Why are we conditioned in this manner? It is gender roles set by our society. In our society for centuries man have played the role of the breadwinner, the provider, the protector, all roles that must be fulfilled by someone that has some form of strength to them. What of women, our role in the past hundred years and beyond was to be the homemaker, raise the kids, and be delicate as a flower and sweet as honey.

With all of these boundaries placed between men and women the only choice there is, is to conform. As a woman I find strength in being capable of doing anything a man can do, I can drive just as good, even better than males of my level of driving experience. I have more knowledge of cars and other things that would be deemed only for boys. I love science and math which for many was that as an area only fond of by boys. I also would one day enjoy being able to drive large trucks of any sort. When saying this to a guy that I was once interested in he says “I don’t think its right for women to drive trucks. I think its un-lady like. I want a wife that I can come home to after work and cook my dinner.” In similar words he also stated that he wanted his wife to work, particularly a high paying job, preferably in medicine, and clean the house and fulfill other womanly roles. Quite obviously the friendship never progressed into anything romantic after that conversation however I always wondered, why must I be forbidden to do things because my private parts are different. In the western world I can say the same thing about a man wearing a skirt or a dress. It is obscene and unheard of in America. However were to visit Scotland, would we not see men openly wearing kilts, with pride and enjoyment.

For my part all I can truly do is be myself whether it fits into the male category or the female category. I believe that goes for all men, women, and naturally born transsexual. The only thing that can possibly done in goodness to be true to yourself.

A Question of Gender

Quite frankly what is gender but a name given to the natural biological structures and processes of the body. Gender as described as male or female has always and forever been the description given to us from birth. With the ever expanding possibilities and features of technology we can no longer be what we were to be but what we want to physically look like akin to our emotions and what makes us feel the way we do. What makes us feel like a man or woman is known as our gender identity. For a long time I believed that we are only male or female. This is how we were born and this is house we shall die. This is how GOD created us and this is how HE wanted us to live whether or not our minds were at war with our outside appearance. With the technology of the future in our possession today we can now and make our minds cohesive to our bodies. Hence the appearance of transgendered people. Thus group also became the apart of the new LGBT group represent a set of people outside our norm. For these people I believe, they are agree that by becoming a transgendered individual they now become the new sex of their choice. As for me, my believe is that once born a man, you are a man. Once born a woman, you are a woman. Although this is my believe and I hold on to it everyday surgery and hormone treatment change gender in such a way that we no longer can tell at times what the original gender was completely obscured of their secret unless it is spoken. And the case of the greatest anomaly of all; transsexual also know as hermaphrodite. This has caused me to rethink my original judgments. Quite frankly once again this goes against the criteria of my original thoughts. An individual of both sexes, without the choice of converting to another because they are already of both sexes, both male and female at birth. What do I say or do? I can only sympathize with these people and look at them from a different light. There is no choice of going from sex A to sex B but only having the choice of being identified as A or B when unknown to most of the world they are the rarely heard of sex C. In this cause I give pardon beyond all others and state that whatever the wishes are of the transsexual group I am compliant to they’re choice of gender identification.


With this I do believe that although higher unlikely there is a possibility to a change of view on the issue of gender. This is solely because gender may no longer be looked at in the sense of a man and a woman but a new addition to the group that must be looked at and understood. With this I say that gender in a case of modern society may never appear the same with gender roles change to fit the new demands or society. Then gender identification with more and more people feeling out of place of their given gender status, whether because of being born as sex male or female or completely a different phenomenon transsexual.