Published Elsewhere: 2SLGBTQIAQA+ Viewpoint― The Muxes of Mexico: A Third Gender

In Oaxaca, Mexico’s Istmo de Tehuantepec region, the traditional indigenous division of three genders is seen as a natural way of being.

I ran across the concept of a “muxe” while viewing Finlandia, a video entered in the Pride Film Festival of Chicago. (I am one of the festival judges.)

In Oaxaca, there are three genders: female, male, and muxes. This third classification has been acknowledged and celebrated since pre-Hispanic times. I was intrigued by the concept of this third-gender group and wanted to share what I learned, although this story is not an in-depth or scholarly take.

Click here to watch a Finlandia trailer. The film itself has not yet been released to the public.

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In this region, most people speak the indigenous Zapotec language, in which — as in English but unlike Spanish — there are no grammatical genders. There is only one form for all people. Muxes have never been forced to choose or wonder: are they more man or woman?”

Not all muxes have had an easy time being accepted by family and other community members, but people in Oaxaca are looking at things differently today than they used to, and like in most of the world, the concept of a third gender is perceived differently from the past.

Muxes are more respected because they are more of a social gender rather than a sexual one, and they play an essential role in the community.

When the men are at sea or in the field and the women are at the market, there is no one to take care of the household and family. That’s where the muxe comes in. Also, their artistic endeavors contribute to the region’s economy.

It’s a blessing for a mother to have a muxe son who will help her at home and take care of young siblings. Also, muxes are traditionally, socially not allowed to have long-term relationships or get married, so they can stay with their mothers to take care of them when the mother gets old.

Some muxes do not want to dedicate themselves to housework, as is one of the muxe’s traditional roles, but rather create handicrafts to sell at the market as a way to earn their living.

Several own beauty shops, work preparing the traditional fiestas that are a big part of the local economy, are involved with the Catholic Church, or teach in the public schools. Many are adept at sewing and selling the traditional dress of the region to the locals.

Muxes have always had an important role in the local Catholic church. It is their job to prepare the church decorations. They make costumes and ornaments for velas, baptisms, communions, quinceañeras (15th birthday parties), and weddings.

Area churches believe God created woman and man, but he also created human nature, and it is possible that God created the muxe as well, and it is totally natural.

Mayates are men who have sexual relationships with muxes, but aren’t muxes themselves and are not considered gay. An important difference with urban Western sexual culture is that for Zapotecs, only sexual relationships between a muxe and a heterosexual male have meaning.

Relations between muxes or between a muxe and a gay man don’t make sense; in fact, they are inconceivable. For the most part, no muxe would sleep with a man who considers himself gay.

Mexicans have been ambivalent towards homosexuals in general. This is a good thing and a bad thing! On one hand, Mexico City was the first Latin American capital to legalize same-sex marriage. Yet Mexico also suffers one of the highest rates of crime against LGBT people in the world. Muxes have been involved in the larger struggle for LGBT rights.

Even though some locals still discriminate against muxes, and the muxe community as a whole has fewer opportunities to study and gain employment, the traditional indigenous division of three genders as a natural and traditional way of being has inspired the LGBT scene around the world.

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The ideas in my writing of this piece were also inspired by a 2018 BBC article, “The Third Gender of Southern Mexico,” part of a series exploring offbeat subcultures and obscure communities around the globe.

I discovered that many world cultures recognize a third gender. Hijras, in Hindu society, are mentioned in the holy texts. To Native Hawaiians and Tahitians, mãhū is an intermediate state between man and woman, or a “person of indeterminate gender.” Some Native Americans of the Southwestern US acknowledge a spectrum of four genders: feminine woman, masculine woman, feminine man, and masculine man, and often consider third-gender people as holy shamans.

I find it so interesting that until recently in Western culture, the concept of gender fluidity was not something that was discussed or considered, but it has been around for centuries and is recognized and organized differently in different cultures. Slowly, the understanding and acceptance of “third gender” or “gender fluidity” in the West has changed.

In some non-Western cultures, gender may not be seen as binary, or people may be seen as being able to cross freely between male and female, or to exist in a state that is in-between, or neither.

In some cultures, being a third gender may be associated with the gift of being able to mediate between the world of the spirits and the world of humans. For cultures with these spiritual beliefs, being third-gender is generally seen as positive, though some third-gender people have been accused of witchcraft and persecuted.

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In most Western cultures, people who do not conform to heteronormative ideals are often seen as sick, disordered, or insufficiently formed. For a long time, I too thought this, but through educating myself, participating in conferences and film festivals, and even writing for Prism & Pen, I have come to better understand, accept, and support the many ways a person can identify with their gender, their sexuality, and their life choices.