Hi VICE,
I just viewed “Be a Man”: Modernists and Traditionalists Debate Masculinity on YouTube. I wish I could have found a way to write a letter to the editor, so hopefully, this message will get to the appropriate person or team.
Your discussion was described as involving “modernists” and “traditionalists” from across the US of different demographic backgrounds and genders—yet there was a gaping hole in your panel. Where was the indigenous voice?
VICE facilitated a discussion about gender (in the US) and yet there isn’t a chair at the table for a member of the First People of this nation to join and contribute an invaluable perspective to the conversation. What a massively missed opportunity.
Without an indigenous view on masculinity—traditional or modern—this debate remained an ethnocentric, colonized view of gender, their roles, and a narrow scope of masculinity.
Despite colonization and genocide nearly wiping out our history and the non-gender roles and normatives in our society, our indigenous ways have remained relatively consistent across different tribal traditions, oral history, and belief in five genders. Indigenous tradition overall believes in fluid gender, but there are five genders consistent across most tribal traditions: feminine female, masculine female, feminine male, masculine male, and two-spirit. Today, some tribes categorize transgender within the two-spirit gender (ex: not every two-spirit person is transgender, but every transgender person is two-spirited).
I’ve included a summarized oral tradition from Indian Country Today for you below:
“[It’s] custom for parents to not interfere with nature, and so among some tribes, children wore gender-neutral clothes until they reached an age where they decided for themselves which path they would walk, and the appropriate ceremonies followed. The Two Spirit people in pre-contact Native America were highly revered and families that included them were considered lucky. Indians believed that a person who was able to see the world through the eyes of both genders at the same time was a gift from The Creator…
Female-bodied Two Spirits were hunters, warriors, engaged in what was typically men’s work and by all accounts, were always fearless…
Two Spirit people, specifically male-bodied (biologically male, gender female) could go to war and have access to male activities such as the sweat lodge. However, they also took on female roles such as cooking, cleaning and other domestic responsibilities…”
(https://ictnews.org/archive/two-spirits-one-heart-five-genders)
I’m sure you can imagine how much richer of a debate you would have had, had an indigenous voice, whether masculine male, feminine male, or two-spirited, been included. You can also imagine how much the lack of inclusion by VICE greatly disappointed both myself and other indigenous people because the lack of representation reinforces the active erasure of our People from our own lands.
By not including an indigenous voice on your Masculinity Debate panel, VICE activity contributed to the ongoing erasure of Native Voices, contributing to a lack of understanding of discrimination and social justice issues and ignoring our relevance in today’s US society.
The Reclaiming Native Truth Project confirmed what many of us have known for a long time: many people in the US don’t think indigenous people or “Native Americans” exist anymore.
“The complete lack of representation in the media, in pop culture, in K-12 education, not only erases us from the American consciousness, it inadvertently creates a bias,” consultant Echo Hawk told Women’s Media Center. “People were less likely to support certain rights and social justice issues for Native people when they had zero perception and understanding of who we are. Invisibility and erasure is the modern form of racism against Native people.”
VICE has covered indigenous issues before and has done exceptional journalism on the effects of exclusion on BIPOCs and the ripple effects of that exclusion or lack of education on society as a whole. Major stories like Standing Rock and water resources, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Black Lives Matter and the historical connection to larger BIPOC issues, are three special reporting topics that VICE has covered where the indigenous voice and experience had an impact and ripple effect on the greater society as a whole. However, the Media ignored much of what the indigenous voice was already speaking on these significant issues until a triggering event made them mainstream topics.
In the opening of “Be a Man,” your host stated there is a “Crisis on masculinity.” Throughout the discussion, severe social issues such as mental health, gun violence, freedom of choice and religion, bodily autonomy, and how to “lead” (to name a few) were all brought up.
A few of the problematic reasons of not having an indigenous voice on your panel in short:
1) Under colonization and gender conformity, Native Americans were not allowed to practice their own religion or, to paraphrase one of your panelists, “be the masculine man as God created them to be” until 1978.
Additionally, in many indigenous religions, masculinity in the Divine isn’t seen as only masculine or worshipped as it is with Westernized Christianity either. (As an aside, from a theological perspective, Christianity also describes the Divine in feminine form. For example, in the Christian scriptures, “God the Father” is described as a “mother dove with wings.” Still, most traditionally identifying Christian males most likely ignore this and wouldn’t have it as part of their core theology and religious practice. In contrast, most indigenous male-identifying people embrace the divine as both masculine and feminine. This contrast is also why indigenous view Two-Spirited people as God’s gift to the people and no less “masculine” in expressed characteristics.)
2) Under colonization and gender conformity, Indigenous people were forced into two genders, made to cut their hair, and wear European clothes. Europeans mutilated any indigenous people who resisted conforming to one of the two acceptable expressions of colonized gender. And Freedom of choice or bodily autonomy? Men nor women had a choice in procreation as the US government forced sterilization on women (and, by proxy, their partners) through 1976.
3) Issues of violence as a sign or characteristic of “masculinity” were also brought up numerous times in this debate and were practically assumed as a baseline truth. Yet, in indigenous culture, violence is not a sign or characteristic of any gender. Is domestic abuse an issue recognized in Indian country? You better believe it. Is this issue ascribed to masculinity? No.
4) Lastly, “masculinity as how to lead” from an indigenous perspective is a disease of colonization. In some tribes, leading was based entirely on an individual’s characteristics, and spiritual gifts (leading roles not possessed based on gender: warriors, medicine people, shamans, etc.), and some tribes have traditions where the matriarchy leads (the male-gendered goes to the female-gendered home and all of the belongs remain with the females).
This stark contrast in how indigenous people have recognized leadership as a character apart from gender has significant implications on how everyone could view gender expressions. Including the indigenous voice in discussions on the topics of gender could also help usher the social discourse toward a massive cultural revolution if we’d even begin to seriously include our perspective and historical narratives in ongoing social conversations. More men wouldn’t feel as beholden to “leading in a certain way,” and women wouldn’t continuously be punished for possessing “masculine-virtue leadership” characteristics. All genders and society benefit from a shift away from colonization’s mark on gender identity and prescription.
VICE is one media outlet that is stirring up conversations that need to happen in relevant channels and media landscapes. In all future reporting, I hope your teams will be more thoughtful in inviting the indigenous voice to the discussion because the void will continue to be a detriment to everyone unless everyone has a seat at the table.
Rebecca Kelly
PS–Lastly, here are a few modern and prominent male indigenous voices that you could begin with. If you are looking for voices who are less prominent, I’m sure my connections would be happy to point you to other indigenous relatives that would share:
Simon Moya Smith
Latinx and Indigenous Voice Contributor and Journalist
simon.moyasmith@gmail.com
IG: simonsaidtakeapic
Dallas Goldtooth
Digital Creator, Community Organizer, Actor
https://www.facebook.com/dallasgoldtooth/
Sean Sherman
The Sioux Chef, Founder of NATIFS, and James Beard Award Winner
Chef@seansherman.com
IG: siouxchef
On the Playlist 
Decolonize Your Debates
Hi VICE,
I just viewed “Be a Man”: Modernists and Traditionalists Debate Masculinity on YouTube. I wish I could have found a way to write a letter to the editor, so hopefully, this message will get to the appropriate person or team.
Your discussion was described as involving “modernists” and “traditionalists” from across the US of different demographic backgrounds and genders—yet there was a gaping hole in your panel. Where was the indigenous voice?
VICE facilitated a discussion about gender (in the US) and yet there isn’t a chair at the table for a member of the First People of this nation to join and contribute an invaluable perspective to the conversation. What a massively missed opportunity.
Without an indigenous view on masculinity—traditional or modern—this debate remained an ethnocentric, colonized view of gender, their roles, and a narrow scope of masculinity.
Despite colonization and genocide nearly wiping out our history and the non-gender roles and normatives in our society, our indigenous ways have remained relatively consistent across different tribal traditions, oral history, and belief in five genders. Indigenous tradition overall believes in fluid gender, but there are five genders consistent across most tribal traditions: feminine female, masculine female, feminine male, masculine male, and two-spirit. Today, some tribes categorize transgender within the two-spirit gender (ex: not every two-spirit person is transgender, but every transgender person is two-spirited).
I’ve included a summarized oral tradition from Indian Country Today for you below:
“[It’s] custom for parents to not interfere with nature, and so among some tribes, children wore gender-neutral clothes until they reached an age where they decided for themselves which path they would walk, and the appropriate ceremonies followed. The Two Spirit people in pre-contact Native America were highly revered and families that included them were considered lucky. Indians believed that a person who was able to see the world through the eyes of both genders at the same time was a gift from The Creator…
Female-bodied Two Spirits were hunters, warriors, engaged in what was typically men’s work and by all accounts, were always fearless…
Two Spirit people, specifically male-bodied (biologically male, gender female) could go to war and have access to male activities such as the sweat lodge. However, they also took on female roles such as cooking, cleaning and other domestic responsibilities…”
(https://ictnews.org/archive/two-spirits-one-heart-five-genders)
I’m sure you can imagine how much richer of a debate you would have had, had an indigenous voice, whether masculine male, feminine male, or two-spirited, been included. You can also imagine how much the lack of inclusion by VICE greatly disappointed both myself and other indigenous people because the lack of representation reinforces the active erasure of our People from our own lands.
By not including an indigenous voice on your Masculinity Debate panel, VICE activity contributed to the ongoing erasure of Native Voices, contributing to a lack of understanding of discrimination and social justice issues and ignoring our relevance in today’s US society.
The Reclaiming Native Truth Project confirmed what many of us have known for a long time: many people in the US don’t think indigenous people or “Native Americans” exist anymore.
“The complete lack of representation in the media, in pop culture, in K-12 education, not only erases us from the American consciousness, it inadvertently creates a bias,” consultant Echo Hawk told Women’s Media Center. “People were less likely to support certain rights and social justice issues for Native people when they had zero perception and understanding of who we are. Invisibility and erasure is the modern form of racism against Native people.”
VICE has covered indigenous issues before and has done exceptional journalism on the effects of exclusion on BIPOCs and the ripple effects of that exclusion or lack of education on society as a whole. Major stories like Standing Rock and water resources, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Black Lives Matter and the historical connection to larger BIPOC issues, are three special reporting topics that VICE has covered where the indigenous voice and experience had an impact and ripple effect on the greater society as a whole. However, the Media ignored much of what the indigenous voice was already speaking on these significant issues until a triggering event made them mainstream topics.
In the opening of “Be a Man,” your host stated there is a “Crisis on masculinity.” Throughout the discussion, severe social issues such as mental health, gun violence, freedom of choice and religion, bodily autonomy, and how to “lead” (to name a few) were all brought up.
A few of the problematic reasons of not having an indigenous voice on your panel in short:
1) Under colonization and gender conformity, Native Americans were not allowed to practice their own religion or, to paraphrase one of your panelists, “be the masculine man as God created them to be” until 1978.
Additionally, in many indigenous religions, masculinity in the Divine isn’t seen as only masculine or worshipped as it is with Westernized Christianity either. (As an aside, from a theological perspective, Christianity also describes the Divine in feminine form. For example, in the Christian scriptures, “God the Father” is described as a “mother dove with wings.” Still, most traditionally identifying Christian males most likely ignore this and wouldn’t have it as part of their core theology and religious practice. In contrast, most indigenous male-identifying people embrace the divine as both masculine and feminine. This contrast is also why indigenous view Two-Spirited people as God’s gift to the people and no less “masculine” in expressed characteristics.)
2) Under colonization and gender conformity, Indigenous people were forced into two genders, made to cut their hair, and wear European clothes. Europeans mutilated any indigenous people who resisted conforming to one of the two acceptable expressions of colonized gender. And Freedom of choice or bodily autonomy? Men nor women had a choice in procreation as the US government forced sterilization on women (and, by proxy, their partners) through 1976.
3) Issues of violence as a sign or characteristic of “masculinity” were also brought up numerous times in this debate and were practically assumed as a baseline truth. Yet, in indigenous culture, violence is not a sign or characteristic of any gender. Is domestic abuse an issue recognized in Indian country? You better believe it. Is this issue ascribed to masculinity? No.
4) Lastly, “masculinity as how to lead” from an indigenous perspective is a disease of colonization. In some tribes, leading was based entirely on an individual’s characteristics, and spiritual gifts (leading roles not possessed based on gender: warriors, medicine people, shamans, etc.), and some tribes have traditions where the matriarchy leads (the male-gendered goes to the female-gendered home and all of the belongs remain with the females).
This stark contrast in how indigenous people have recognized leadership as a character apart from gender has significant implications on how everyone could view gender expressions. Including the indigenous voice in discussions on the topics of gender could also help usher the social discourse toward a massive cultural revolution if we’d even begin to seriously include our perspective and historical narratives in ongoing social conversations. More men wouldn’t feel as beholden to “leading in a certain way,” and women wouldn’t continuously be punished for possessing “masculine-virtue leadership” characteristics. All genders and society benefit from a shift away from colonization’s mark on gender identity and prescription.
VICE is one media outlet that is stirring up conversations that need to happen in relevant channels and media landscapes. In all future reporting, I hope your teams will be more thoughtful in inviting the indigenous voice to the discussion because the void will continue to be a detriment to everyone unless everyone has a seat at the table.
Rebecca Kelly
PS–Lastly, here are a few modern and prominent male indigenous voices that you could begin with. If you are looking for voices who are less prominent, I’m sure my connections would be happy to point you to other indigenous relatives that would share:
Simon Moya Smith
Latinx and Indigenous Voice Contributor and Journalist
simon.moyasmith@gmail.com
IG: simonsaidtakeapic
Dallas Goldtooth
Digital Creator, Community Organizer, Actor
https://www.facebook.com/dallasgoldtooth/
Sean Sherman
The Sioux Chef, Founder of NATIFS, and James Beard Award Winner
Chef@seansherman.com
IG: siouxchef
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