May 23, 2019 - Slightly Offensive - Elijah Schaffer
14:25
Is This Guy Serious?
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Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3_5VqDiJUQ
Uploader: Slightly Offens*ve
First of all, you start this video with a guy who looks less like an expert on gender and more like a character from an early 2000s Star Wars movie.
I mean, I'm not trying to be rude, but I've never been more confused looking at this shim lord.
Seriously, pause the video, look at him for like 60 seconds, and I can guarantee you'll feel more lost than a scene kid in 2001 listening to Fallout Boy on their MySpace playlist.
To top it off, we already somehow conflated the 90s indigenous people, ancient history, and the gay conquest flag as a support for our first introduction to yet another made-up gender identity.
Could it get any worse?
Yes.
What is Two-Spirit?
unidentified
What is Two-Spirit?
It's an umbrella term that bridges Indigenous and Western understandings of gender and sexuality.
You may recognize it as the two that sometimes appears on the end of LGBTQ2.
This he, she, Zimzer, or Shimshi, as I will call them, begins by explaining that two-spirit is the intersectionality of Indigenous and Western views on sexuality.
Of course, the initial explanation for two-spirit reminds me a lot of Hollywood celebrities, being that they are both absolutely ridiculous and totally useless at the same time.
He then says, you may recognize this gender identity by the two at the end of LGBTQ2.
Sorry to break it to you, man-child, but this is the first time most of us watching this video have ever seen a number at the end of the queer alphabet.
You are probably just making this up.
But I'll give it to you for the trendy graphics and Killer Cat Eyeliner.
You go, girl.
unidentified
So how did the term two-spirit first come about?
In 1990, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, at the third annual Native American Gay and Lesbian Gathering, the term two-spirit was proposed and affirmed by consensus.
So basically, a bunch of gay and lesbian former TP dwellers got together 19 years ago, collectively decided on a new gender, and voila?
That was enough evidence for you to believe that this thing is real?
No wonder these people believe there was Russia collusion.
Seriously though, this man is a huge disappointment and letdown for the reputation of all those who graduated from the Jedi Academy.
Okay, I get it.
So Two Spirit was meant to solve a problem of naming.
Why is it always that the people who can't tell the difference between a boy and a girl are always in the business of creating new words to help us distinguish things?
I mean, look, I think we are past the place now where we've accepted that the forces of human sexuality are complex.
People like to do weird things with their lightsabers behind closed doors.
But for a man that looks like a cross between Walt Disney's Pocahontas and the live-action star Jason Statham, I'm not feeling too convinced that this is even a real thing anymore.
unidentified
To illustrate the diversity of meanings that Two-Spirit contains, consider the following.
In Lakota, the word winkte means to be as a woman and refers to two-soul Lakota people who transgress boundaries of gender from what may be considered male to female.
In Dineth, Nadlehe means those who transform and refers to one of four separate genders.
Masculine-feminine, masculine, masculine, feminine-masculine, and feminine-feminine.
Each gender has its own word in the Dinette language.
Each gender has a word in the English language as well, male and female.
So here's something I want to bring up.
Why are these shimshi-looking people always obsessed with indigenous culture to fix the made-up problems we face today?
I mean, for people that hadn't even figured out how to invent the wheel, I'm not entirely sure I trust their perspective on other things such as psychological gender.
unidentified
And those are just two nation-specific examples.
There are so many more.
Each nation's understanding of gender and sexual diversity is different and grounded in specific spiritual beliefs.
Although all nations don't have a concept of two-spirit people, across those indigenous nations that do, two-spirit people were historically held in high regard and often considered sacred or divine, holding important positions like matchmakers, medicine people, or warriors on the front lines of battle.
Ah, so now we get to the real reason why we are supposed to respect these two-spirit individuals.
And I'm glad they were at least honest about it this time.
We aren't just supposed to accept these people, like they say, but we are required by tradition to hold them in the highest regard.
This always seems to be at the front end of all of these social re-engineering projects.
People don't just have to tolerate the two-spirit shamans, but we have to go to them now for our dating advice.
Sir, with no disrespect, if you can't even figure out if you want to be bald or have long hair, I'm not sure you're exactly in a good position to help me find my soulmate.
Also, while this might seem cruel, do you realize that a tribe sending their two-spirit tribe members to the front lines of a battle isn't exactly a compliment?
I mean, it seems like it would be an effective way to weed out the weirdos in a society, but I think that's more of a hate crime than a high honor.
Just my perspective.
unidentified
Many two-spirit people perform roles traditionally assigned to both men and women.
Witwa, a famous two-spirit of the Zuni or Ihamana, was known to take part in masculine tribal matters and feminine tribal matters and was even sent as an official Zuni delegate to Washington, D.C.
This next clip reminds me of those times back in college on an essay test where I didn't have the information to support my claims.
So I just started writing down useless and unrelated information, hoping that the person that was grading my paper wouldn't notice that I was just speaking out of my butt.
See, this person here who wore a dress did man things, like go to Washington, D.C., which is a man's job, and therefore I'm a real man too, and two-spirit people exist because I said so and I'm on YouTube.
That's a great argument, Mr. Shimlord.
Anything else you want to tell me?
Ah, yes, you do.
unidentified
Part of the reason Two-Spirit was adopted at the 1990 conference was because much of the written record on the indigenous nations of North America begins with European contact.
For instance, the writings of Jesuit priests from the 1600s contain references to birdachés, which means kept boy in French, to refer to those who embodied both male and female genders.
These writings often focus negatively on perceived cross-dressing among the Anishinaabe.
The term is not only inaccurate in that it projects a European understanding of gender, but is widely considered pejorative by natives.
So some Christian guys back 400 years ago had a word for people like me, which therefore proves that we are normal.
Look, I'm sorry, man.
Again, I'm not here to be rude, but am I honestly supposed to believe that you care about what Christians and priests thought about you 400 years ago?
I mean, having a word for something doesn't entirely validate it and mean it's a good or normal thing according to any social standards?
I mean, they had words back then for the Black Plague and smallpox too, so that's not exactly the best evidence to support your made-up identity.
Also, why are you confusing Christianity with European perspectives exclusively?
Christianity was initially just a Jewish sect that were called Christians.
Do you realize that it was Middle Eastern Easter worshipers who spread the religion to Europe?
Then you go and throw in the word pejorative, which is about 30 IQ points higher than most of the consumers of the YouTube channel you film this on, instead of just saying belittling or derogatory like a regular one-spirit person might say.
unidentified
Two-spirit was an attempt at self-determination across linguistic barriers because the existing language, foreign and imposed violently on the Indigenous peoples of North America, was both offensive and deeply colonial in its gaze.
European colonizers imposed homophobia, rigid binary gender roles, and misogyny under the guise of civilizing Indigenous people through the Christian tradition in residential schools and beyond.
Oh man, I am going to have to unpack this one very slowly.
First of all, we don't have two-spirit in our culture because the English language was imposed violently on Indigenous cultures.
Okay, you might have a point here.
If of course you and your non-binary friends weren't conflating the same statements about words being violently imposed on Indigenous people, like when you all cried about a boy smirking on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Yes, I'm referring to you, Nathan Phillips.
He may have not been full of more than one spirit, but I can confirm he was still full of crap.
Anyways, of course now we are talking about how colonizers instilled homophobia, rigid gender binary rules and misogyny?
As if these were the main issues the Indigenous people cared about?
I mean, who's remembering the massacres or chemical warfare, the conquering of lands and exiles?
I'm sure these natives were mostly upset about being introduced to European gender binaries.
unidentified
As a result, Indigenous people were robbed not only of their land, but of their spiritual traditions and way of life regarding two-spirit people.
Many nations came to forbid and punish two-spirit unions and self-expression.
As recently as 2004, Kathy Reynolds and Don McKinley, two Cherokee women in Tulsa, Oklahoma, attempted to marry under tribal law, setting off a convoluted legal battle with serious political and social implications.
The two were thrust into the spotlight against their wishes and became instant public symbols of the battle for two-spirit rights under tribal law.
The Cherokee tribe is the second largest in the U.S.
So as justification for your two-spirit identity, we see two women who look fully white, but aren't white, but seem white, and are definitely from the Midwest because of their apparent body size, trying to perform a gay marriage and are blocked.
Of course, because of the tolerant stances at the time of people like Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama, who vehemently opposed such unions as early as a few years ago.
Look, man, you can't just change the wording of gay marriage and call it two-spirit and then use that as a justification for breaking marriage laws across the country.
That's like when I stole something and the police were like, you are going to jail for stealing.
And I'm just like, I'm not going to jail.
In my culture, we don't have a word for stealing.
It's okay in my house.
We call this partaking.
No, that's not how an ordered society functions.
I don't know how they used to do things on Alderaan where you came from.
But here on Earth, we have laws.
And if they need to be changed, the people vote for them, not just change the diction.
unidentified
Although they were granted the right to marry, the decision to issue them a marriage license was soon challenged and led to a tribal law declaring that a union was to be between a man and a woman.
Eventually, in 2016, the law was overturned.
By that time, a wider cultural shift had taken place, both outside of and within the Cherokee Nation.
So America changed its two-spirit laws in 2016 when we allowed universal two-spirit marriages.
What?
Wait, wait a second.
Oh, I get it now.
Two-spirit is just another way to say gay.
Then why is this so complicated?
You're wondering why we didn't have laws protecting the spiritual sexual unions of ancient indigenous cultures?
Dude, the same reason we don't have religious tribunals to impose the death penalty on witches is the same reason why we never had a rule about two spirits.
Society has developed and advanced.
We have different words, man.
Get with it.
And yeah, sorry to break this to y'all, but wearing makeup and dresses isn't exactly a new thing in Indigenous communities.
I mean, was there ever a time in recent history where natives weren't doing that?
I'm sure in the past, it might have been more common then, but wearing makeup isn't going to right the wrongs of history.
Additionally, while I know this idea upsets a lot of people, we aren't colonizers of Indigenous land.
We are victors.
Huge difference.
It's not like the land belonged to them.
In fact, tribes constantly fought each other over resources and land.
It wasn't like all these tribes just sung kumbaya and lived in some bison-saturated utopia where your balls could get fresh air without legal retribution.
So while it sounds terrible, these colonizers you're referring to didn't just take the land, they conquered it.
Europeans apparently ended up just being the strongest tribe.
unidentified
In 2011, the first known U.S. Two-Spirit powwow was organized by the Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits.
Since then, powwows honoring Two Spirits have been held in Montana and Kansas.
And in March of 2017, the largest powwow in the U.S., the Gathering of Nations, honored Two-Spirit people during its grand entry.
I guess I'm both fascinated and curious about what a Two-Spirit powwow actually looks like.
What do they eat?
Do they follow Elizabeth Warren's recipes?
unidentified
Two-spirit identity is resilient and precious.
It has survived centuries of colonial violence and prejudice.
These sacred ways of knowing live on amongst Native youth seeking to know more about themselves, elders who have kept the traditions alive in spite of the odds, and anyone in between.
It should go without saying, but Two-Spirit is not a poetic way for non-native LGBTQ people to express themselves.
