Re: Nandan?

From: Peter Larsen <plarsen_at_...>
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 15:59:36 -0500

At 01:41 PM 2/24/2005, Jane Williams wrote:
>Donald:
>
> > According to ST they can't give birth although earlier
> > writeups made it a major HQ for Nandani used only when a clan
> > is desperate for children.
>
>It must have been those earlier write-ups I was thinking of, then.
>Nandan as the cult for men who take up occupations (and religious roles)
>normally reserved for women, but who remain (physically/biologically)
>men works for me, and makes it the equivalent of Vinga, as has been
>said.

         I have a little trouble with the new treatment of Nandan, since you need to have had children to get into the Ernalda All-Mother (and maybe the Queen) sub-cults. It seems like a
not-all-that-common-but-not-unheard-of heroquest is called for.... Perhaps there are similar ones for Vingans who want to "father" a child.

         I agree that not all Nandans and Vingans (likely not even most) are sexually oriented towards men and women, respectively, but I imagine a higher proportion of these cult's members are sexually interested in their own gender than appears in the regular clan population. Nandans and Vingans are driven strongly enough to challenge the gender roles of their society to be called to gods who embody "cross-gender" activity, after all. So how many? I don't know -- "popular wisdom" probably makes the percentage higher than it actually is "You know what Vingans are like..." -- and becomes part of the kidding, well-meant or malicious, that "odd people" have to deal with in Heortling society. Like everybody crossing the path to avoid the Humakti or the Gori, or the sexual jokes that the Heleri get tired of, etc, etc.

         In the real world, the range of sexual response among as small a group as "people who feel so sexually dysphoric (I may be spelling that wrong) that they seek gender reassignment surgery" is pretty wide -- I know both MtF and FtM transsexuals, and some identify post-surgery as heterosexual and some as homosexual. This leaves out the wide range of people who identify as intersexed, hermaphrodites, etc (which is getting way beyond what we are talking about). Anyway, I imagine that Nandans and Vingans have at least as great a range.

Peter