Playing Different Roles Being the simple-minded conformist Western Americans that we are, it’s hard to have an open mind on topics such as gender roles, gender equality, sexual orientation, and so on. Most Americans don’t have a complete understanding of the world outside of the United States, so if we see or hear something we don’t feel is right, we automatically speak negatively on the subject. Western Americans have just passed the law of gay marriage being legalized in the United States. All this time most Americans we’re viewing same sex marriage is wrong, because that’s abnormal to us. We would categorize it as a sin, disease, an evil spirit or any other negative outside factor affecting the individual. Like any disease, we would try treating someone who categorizes themselves as homosexual, transgender, bisexual, etc. …show more content…
An alternative role in many American Indian cultures is called berdache. Berdache is a morphological male who doesn’t fit within a society’s standard male role. They have a non-masculine character to them and does not fit in with the females or males, but exist within their own gender role. The berdaches are normally the passive partner in sex with the men, and in some cases become a wife to the man. For a long time, this would be viewed as wrong in a Western Americans mind. Men should be masculine and women should be feminine and the world goes