Abstract
After nearly forty years, the first lecture in an undergraduate sociology class on gender can be easily imagined: the instructor’s primary goal is to disabuse students of the notion that sex and gender are the same thing. Indeed, the sociology of gender turns on gender being seen as different from biology, and different from sex category. However we do it, we strive to get across the notion that the concept of gender is conceived not to be a fixed or natural characteristic, but instead points to ubiquitous activities in social life—behavioral, emotional, linguistic, and discursive—that mark, note, remind, create, affirm, and reaffirm our conviction that there is something essentially male or female that resides within us and justifies the way we are thusly categorized at birth. And when we see the results of all this activity, we then typically take it as confirmatory evidence of an inner “nature.” Such evidence can be constituted from historically related practices, institutionally inscribed directives, and/or interpersonal social exchange. In short, most of us teach our students that gender (unlike sex) is about ways of appearing, acting, or feeling that are understood and acted on as sex category-specific.
In the last ten to fifteen years, however, things seem not so neat and tidy. In Behind the Mask: Gender Hybridity in a Zapotec Community, sociologist Alfredo Mirandé has added his scholarship to others in studying those who live counter to what we often treat as a fixed, intractable system—”either/or,” masculine or feminine—indicative of a “natural” female or male. In this case, Mirandé interviewed a group of 52 biological males who present and live not as women but as los muxes of Juchitan (a word deriving from a Spanish word for “woman” or “effeminate”), or what Mirandé (and anthropologists over the years) refer to as a “third gender.” Mirandé presents a fascinating account of how the Zapotec tradition of los muxes derives from the legend of Vincente Ferrer, patron saint of Juchitan and spiritual saint of the muxes. Thus, early on the reader is made to appreciate the ancient, deep-seated—even sacred—quality of this exceptionalized group. There ends the simplicity of the story and begins Mirandé’s exploration of what the muxes are and what their existence teaches us about sex and gender.
In the preface, Mirandé cites an early interview where a muxe explains, “We are all technically ‘gay’ because we have sex with men [called mayates], but the muxes distinguish themselves from other gays because they consider themselves to be a sort of third sex” (p. xii). The rest of the volume presents a dizzying array of complexities as the idealized muxe is left behind and the people who inhabit muxe identities live real lives. A few examples: muxes can take on a masculine identity and at other times a feminine identity; being muxe is not a choice even though some are seen to be authentic and others only mimics; a muxe is seen as a blessing to a family, in part to provide additional stereotypic women’s labor, but also work in what are thought to be muxe trades, such as dressmakers and hair stylists; the attribution of the “muxe” label and the “gay” label appear to have a class component. And so on.
Muxes have a particularly strong institutionalized role in the preparation and management of the elaborate velas, the spring festivals and parades in honor of saints. The language to describe all this reflects a preoccupation with display and performance, as well as the strong influence of the traditional gendered binary. For example, there are vestidas, those muxes who regularly dress in women’s clothing (both traditional and modern), and pintadas, those muxes who wear men’s clothing but also wear makeup and jewelry. Muxes also classify themselves for their likely role in sexual relations, with those who are activo and those who are pasivo, with Mirandé reporting that the vast majority of muxes identify as pasivo.
A curious feature of this serious qualitative effort is the scant use of directly quoted material, particularly in the third chapter, where “case studies” are presented. At various crucial junctures, readers may wonder what exactly was said by respondents, rather than hearing it paraphrased by Mirandé. One of many examples is the author’s discussion of a muxe named Biiniza. In this passage, presumably she has described her experience to the author: “Her first sexual encounter was beautiful, but she learned never to let anyone take advantage of her or exploit her. On the contrary, this experience taught her to use and control others, particularly men, instead of letting anyone use or control her” (p. 75). In addition, there are precious few moments when the author pauses to help the reader make sense of the detail, note some intriguing contradictions, or connect observations to central questions. This is likely to be a point of frustration for students, as they may lose their grip on the analysis, its insights, and its intention.
In his interviews, the author presents his primary question: “whether muxes are simply doing gender and reproducing the gender binary, or representing a third sex and gender category” (p. 61). The oppositional framing of the question itself ignores the richness of the data and the analytic insights that might be available to the reader. The author may certainly be right to conclude that “the muxes maintain a sexual/gender hybridity that allows them to adopt seemingly contradictory perceptions of gender and sexuality” (p. 198), but it is difficult to see what led him there. Indeed, the story of the muxes suggests that the gender binary—masculine/feminine—is a constant reference point (behavioral, emotional, linguistic, and discursive) to render the muxes recognizable as both different from the ordinary and at the same time eligible to be accommodated as an exception. The author concludes that the muxes represent a “hybrid third gender.” Perhaps so, but one additional conclusion to this analysis is that in Juchitan, gender hybridity is maintained not in opposition to the gender binary, but because of it.