That’s an offensive way to refer to someone’s religious and cultural experiences. Being two spirit is a gnostic spiritual experience that is both current and real. Calling it a myth isn’t acceptance. It’s judgement, the imposing of your frame of reference on their lived experience.
Fact: people retain their own identities and alignments (even multiple!) In their own head, and that’s great.
Fact: souls and spirits are not proven to exist.
If people want to believe in religion and myth, that’s totally fine. It’s not my “judgement” to learn about, and acknowledge that others pursue traditions based in myth.
When I use the word myth I’m not singling out any one faith, all religion is myth based.
This isn’t a respectful attempt to understand two spirit people. You are intentionally using dismissive language that implies a lack of validity to their lived experiences. “It’s fine that you think and do these things, but it’s all in your head, and your reasoning is made up nonsense.” is something trans people of all sorts hear before their rights are attacked and diminished. It’s something I have heard out of the mouth of flesh and blood humans in front of me. The structure with which you address two spirit people is comparably delegitimizing. If you must handle this with familiar terms instead of seeking the third party gnostic understanding of empathy, consider it a cultural metaphor. Because this metaphor contains facts and realities that you don’t understand, even if they are couched in ideas you personally find implausible, and you’re never going to really understand these facts by simple reframing. You have to understand from their perspective to deconstruct and reconstruct the truths held in the two spirit experience into your reality.
That’s an offensive way to refer to someone’s religious and cultural experiences. Being two spirit is a gnostic spiritual experience that is both current and real. Calling it a myth isn’t acceptance. It’s judgement, the imposing of your frame of reference on their lived experience.
Fact: people retain their own identities and alignments (even multiple!) In their own head, and that’s great.
Fact: souls and spirits are not proven to exist.
If people want to believe in religion and myth, that’s totally fine. It’s not my “judgement” to learn about, and acknowledge that others pursue traditions based in myth.
When I use the word myth I’m not singling out any one faith, all religion is myth based.
This isn’t a respectful attempt to understand two spirit people. You are intentionally using dismissive language that implies a lack of validity to their lived experiences. “It’s fine that you think and do these things, but it’s all in your head, and your reasoning is made up nonsense.” is something trans people of all sorts hear before their rights are attacked and diminished. It’s something I have heard out of the mouth of flesh and blood humans in front of me. The structure with which you address two spirit people is comparably delegitimizing. If you must handle this with familiar terms instead of seeking the third party gnostic understanding of empathy, consider it a cultural metaphor. Because this metaphor contains facts and realities that you don’t understand, even if they are couched in ideas you personally find implausible, and you’re never going to really understand these facts by simple reframing. You have to understand from their perspective to deconstruct and reconstruct the truths held in the two spirit experience into your reality.
Everything is in our heads! And that’s valid!
Our identities, our traditions, the myths we follow.
I’m not delegitimizing to acknowledge someone is following a myth.