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The Conversation
The Conversation
Sarah Imhoff, Professor of Religious Studies, Indiana University

Nonbinary genders beyond 'male' and 'female' would have been no surprise to ancient rabbis, who acknowledged tumtums, androgynos and aylonot

Jewish law includes acknowledgment that not everyone fits neatly into the categories 'male' and 'female.' Mishna/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

“Genderqueer” and “nonbinary” are contemporary terms for people who don’t fit neatly into male or female categories. But acknowledging that not everyone fits neatly into those two groups has a much longer history than you might suspect.

As a scholar of Judaism and gender, I find that people across the political spectrum often assume religion must be inherently conservative and unchanging when it comes to sex and gender. They imagine that religions have always embraced a world in which there are only men and women.

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