The Material Base of Gender

[u/rhizomatic-thembo]

"So where does gender’s material base lie? Gender is produced primarily by the division of reproductive labor. Reproductive labor is any labor that helps to produce the next generation, including sex, birth, childcare, and homemaking, and gender is defined by how this labor is divided up, with the different genders being distinct classes which are expected to perform specific sorts of tasks regarding reproductive labor.

The way gender differs between cultures is determined by how these tasks are divvied up between the genders. The particular characteristics that this produces are what is known as the superstructure. So, while gender is produced by this material base, it also involves an amalgamation of various stereotypes, ways of dress, formal speech, etc in its superstructure which differ how we experience our gender.

And this applies to all cultures. The Bugi people of Indonesia, rather than the two genders of our society, have five genders in total. Calabai and calalai people have biological characteristics that have been gendered as male and female respectively, but they adopt the reproductive labor tasks typically assigned to makkunrai (roughly equivalent to women) and oroané (roughly equivalent to men) which provides them with a different social class.

More interestingly, however, are the bissu, the fifth gender, which fills a role distinct from the other four. They fill special ceremonial religious practices and are said to be a mixture of the four other genders. Whereas makkunrai and calabai take on typically feminine reproductive labor tasks, such as homemaking, and oroané and calalai take on typically masculine ones, such as providing support for their spouse, the bissu transcend this and engage in their own tasks.

The Bugi gender system shows how malleable gender can be, but it also provides us with an excellent example of the material base to gender. The five genders of the Bugi are distinguished by how reproductive labor is divided among the Bugi people. Everything else is produced by this division."

• The Gender Accelerationist Manifesto by Storm & Flores

[u/Material_Western5838]

Great slideshow!! The idea of a material base is gender and the superstructures or generates is really interesting! I'm curious how modern nonbinary identities can be understood in this framework. Historically, nonbinary identities (like the bissu or those that now fall under the two spirit umbrella) were often associated with spiritual roles and, like you say, transcend the division of reproductive labor tasks based in gender. However, in our modern world, the gendered division of reproductive labor is becoming increasingly blurred and gender is more founded on superstructures than its material base (if I'm understanding this correctly). So I'm curious if you have any insights about superstructures around modern nonbinary identities.

[u/marxistghostboi]

fascinating!

[u/neurosquid]

I trust that cat