Cinderfella, Sleeping Prince: Less-known versions of popular folktales (Feminist Folktales, special edition)

Another Thursday, another post for Feminist Folktales! It's a series of traditional stories from around the world that display motifs that reflect feminist values. I am not changing any of the stories, merely researching and compiling them, and posting them here as food for thought. You can find the list of posts here.

Today's post is a special edition: I have collected variants of well known folktales where the gender of the hero is different from what we are used to (not saying "opposite" because gender is not a binary, people). My goal was to show off how - while people tend to bash/praise folktales for promoting "traditional gender roles" - oral folklore around the world is a lot more flexible than we tend to give credit for. 

(Links in the titles.)

Cinderfella

Cinderella is often brought up when people discuss gender roles in fairy tales (see "if Cinderella were a guy" by the creators of - the otherwise amazing - Rebel Girls). And yet, a whole lot of Cinderfellas exist in folktales around the world. There is a Hungarian folktale called Prince Cinderella (although, despite the title, the cinder-boy walks a whole different journey), and the folktale type of The princess on the Glass Mountain (ATU 530) also often revolves around an abused youngest brother showing up in disguise three times to win a princess. 

The Cameroon folktale of The unhappy stepson follows the Cinderella plot to a letter. A boy is left at home by his stepmother to sort beans, while the princess is having a ball to pick a husband. The boy is dressed for the ball by the spirit of his mother. In the end, he even leaves his shoe behind, and the princess uses it to find him. 

Sleeping princes

Sleepig beauties are not always women - in many tales, it is a sleeping prince who needs to be awakened. In the Turkish fairy tale of The dragon prince and the stepmother, the female hero wakes and rescues a prince enchanted by peris. There is a similar Greek folktale, as well as an entire folktale type (ATU 425g), where the female hero has to sit vigil over a prince for many days and nights until the curse is broken. Often she is replaced in the last minute by a false bride - but I also know at least one variant where the women become friends instead.

Little Red

Boudin-Boudine is a French folktale, where the role of Little Red Riding Hood is taken up by the boy. Also, in the end the wolf is chased away by a broom-wielding grandma.

Puss in Boots

The Swedish folktale that Andersen based his Princess and the Pea on is actually much more fun than his version. It is essentially a Puss in Boots tale, except the hero is a clever girl, and she is helped by a clever dog. And she is not bothered by the pea at all.

Secret dreams

There is a folktale type (ATU 725) about a hero who sees a prophetic dream of wealth and fortune, but either refuses to tell his parents about it, or tells them and they are angered by his inpertinence (see Joseph and his brothers). In the end, of course, the dream comes true. Well, in the Greek folktale of The Wild Man's daughter, it's a girl who sees herself as a powerful queen in a dream, and her father chases her away. She is adopted by a wild man in the woods, who takes good care of her, and makes sure her dream comes true.

(This is also a lovely adoption story.)

Clever Lad

The story of the Clever Maid is internationally well known: this is the tale where a girl has to visit a king "walking and not walking, dressed but not dressed," etc. In at least one version I know, from Finland, this tale is told with a clever male hero. 

Stolen feather dress

In another well known folktale motif, a man usually spies on fairy women who take off their bird / swan / feather dresses while they bathe. He steals the dress/skin of the most beautiful girl, so she can't escape from him (sometimes, this backfires). Creepy, right? In the Armenian tale of The magic box, it is a girl who spies on bird men, and steals a feather cloak. In her defense, it is her stolen husband she is trying to find again.

Beautiful prince

We get used to princes in folktales setting out to seek beautiful princesses. In the Greek tale of Fair as the Sun, however, it is a princess that takes on the journey to find a legendarily beautiful prince, and make him her husband (even though he already has a lover... but that's beside the point).

Silent prince

There are many variants of the Silent princess folktale, where a hero has to make a princess speak three times through various means - usually with telling some very clever dilemma tales. In a Georgian folktale, however, it is a king who has to break the enchantment on a silent prince, and he is helped by a talking golden apple.

Cupid and Psyche

You know the folktale motif where a mortal woman marries a mysterious supernatural husband, who only visits her at night, and refuses to show his true (beautiful) face? Well, in a Lithuanian folktale it is a mortal man who marries a mysterious woman, and when he spies on her, she tosses him out the window.

(They do reunite in the end, though.)

Love of Three Grapefruits

The Love of Three Oranges (ATU 408) is a folktale type where a man sets out, obtains three magical fruits, and cuts them open to summon beautiful women. The first two usually die or disappear, but the third eventually becomes his wife.  

Well, in one tale from the Dominican Republic, it is a girl who sets out to pick grapefruit, and by burning them she summons three princes. However, she can't talk to any of them, so all three disappear. Later on, when her life is in danger, they return to help her.

Rose Beauty

You might be familiar with the motif from many "animal bride" folktales where three brothers shoot arrows in three directions, and follow the arrows to find a bride. In the Turkish tale of Rose Beauty, the archery trick is done by three princesses, who then set out to seek husbands.

Magic bird heart

This is what they call the folktale type where two brothers accidentally eat the heart / liver / head etc. of a magic bird, and gain superpowers from them. After they get separated and go through many adventures, their powers bring them good fortune and they eventually find each other again (ATU 567A). 

In the Azeri version of the story, the siblings are a boy and a girl, Lala and Nergiz, and it is the girl who has the most exciting adventures - among others, she defeats a dragon, a giant, and a sea monster too! 

Árgilus

Hungarian, Russian, Middle Eastern, and Caucasian folktales often contain the motif of a tree of golden apples being robbed every night, until the youngest of three princes manages to stay awake to spy on the mysterious thief. I recently found a Hungarian folktale variant, where a king's silk meadow is grazed every night. He sets his three daughters to guard it, but only the youngest princess manages to stay awake, with the help of a little mouse. At the end of the story, the mouse turns into a prince.

Jill and the Beanstalk

The well known tale of Jack and the Beanstalk belongs to folktale type ATU 328, Treasures of the Giant. It is a very interesting type, because it exists both with male and female heroes. The version with the female hero is especially well known in the Hungarian tradition. I translated one text here.

There are also other tales around the world where women climb up into the sky on a beanstalk. I read one from Nauru, and another one from Latvia.

"But the traditional gender roles in folktales..."

Sure.

Folklore Thursday: The princess that turned into a prince

Today is Folklore Thursday on social media! If you want to find out more, follow this link, or click on the #FolkloreThursday hashtag on Twitter! Hosted by @FolkloreThursday.

Today's post is a folktale translation. I have talked about this story before when I discussed gender representation and storytelling. A visitor on my blog asked for a full translation for research purposes, and I am more than happy to help (being a research dork and all). And since I am a little overwhelmed right now, I decided to double it as a FT post.
Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: This translation is my own work, as close in wording to the original as possible. I don't tell the story in quite this version, because some parts just rub me the wrong way. But since this is a translation for folklore research, I left it untweaked. Be warned for adult/disturbing content.
DISCLAIMER II: Hungarian language uses gender-neutral pronouns only. In English, I used "she" for the princess until the actual sex change took place (unless someone was talking about her as a soldier).

The girl who became a man
Translated from:
Ortutay, Gy. - Kovács, Á. - Dégh, L. (1960) Magyar népmesék. Budapest: Szépirodalmi Könyvkiadó.
pp. 281-290.

Original storyteller:
László Korpás, Tiszabercel. Story collected in 1935.
(The Hungarian Folktale Type catalog knows 5 versions of this story from Hungary)

A king didn't have sons, only daughters. A king from another country asked him for an army officer from his family, saying if he didn't provide one they would declare war against him. The old king couldn't go himself, since he was old. Out of his three daughters, the eldest volunteered for the soldier's  uniform and the rank of lieutenant - she would cut her hair short, and ride on a beautiful horse, with spurs on her boots! She got dressed and mounted.
An iron-nosed witch was trying to get her sheep out of a ditch, but was't strong enough. The disguised lady noticed the witch. The witch greeted the princess, and asked her to help, saying:
"Please come and help me get the sheep out!"
"You can get them out yourself, I was not born to work!"
Said the iron-nosed witch:
"Go back, since you are a woman, no one will accept you where you are going."
The princess went on, thinking. The words of the witch scared her.
"She noticed I was a woman! The army even has doctors, they will have to see me too. Maybe they will even examine me since I am from another country."
She went back home. She said to her family:
"I am not brave, I won't go."
Her sister dressed up in her clothes. She also met the iron-nosed witch. The witch asked for help.
"I won't help!"
"If you don't help me, my son, you won't have luck on your way."
Her sister had told her why she returned. She also returned to her father's house. She, too, told her father that she had lost her courage. Their youngest sister was only twenty-one years old. She said:
"I will go! My heart is not made of willow wood. That soldier's uniform made for you fits me very well. I am braver and better than you are."
She set out. She found the iron-nosed witch. Half of her sheep were still in the ditch, in the water and mud. The witch said:
"Your highness, my lady, please, help me get these few sheep out! I have been struggling with them for more than a week."
The princess said:
"How can I go into that muddy water in this nice uniform?"
The witch said:
"Just take off your clothes, get naked. You are a woman just like I am. We don't have to be ashamed. If God helps us and we get the sheep out, the other ditch has clean water, we can wash ourselves, get dressed, and go to my house."
After they got dressed, they went to the small cottage of the iron-nosed witch. She said to the princess:
"Here is this stick, take it." she pointed to a broom shrub "Hit that bush with this stick. A large hare will jump out of it and run towards my house. Follow it."
The hare did run, and so did the princess, to the witch's house. The witch said:
"I will show you kindness, my son, for this, without hesitation. You shall know I am not a nobody."
The witch yelled at the hare. The hare fell to the ground, rolled, and turned into a beautiful, golden-haired horse.
"You shall ride this one, my son. Come into the room."
She opened the wardrobe and took out a finer and more beautiful soldier's uniform; she dressed the princess in it.
"The horse I am giving you is a táltos [magic horse], it can talk to you. When you get to the other country's king, you will report which kingdom you came from, tell him whose son you are. Do not tell them you are a girl."
She was greeted kindly by the officers of the army. They all thought that other countries had such handsome men. They announced her to the king. The colonel gave her as a lieutenant to a company. In a couple of weeks, they had to go to battle. The leader of the company became ill, so the lieutenant took his place. They got the order that the regiment had to leave the next day, and she was the leader of the first company of the first regiment. She went to the stables to her horse. She was sad, and the horse noticed her sadness.
"Why are you so sad?"
"Unless it is cancelled, we are going to battle tomorrow."
It did get cancelled, but the soldier had to appear in front of the king. The king came out onto the porch with his family. The foreign lieutenant was the leader standing up front. The king's daughter took a liking to her. The king was sad for his soldiers, and on account of his daughter's request he turned them back, because his daughter loved the lieutenant.
"Give me to him, mother, father, invite him and I'll wed him, if he'll have me, because that matters."
They invited the foreign lieutenant. She couldn't get out of the wedding, so the two girls were wed. On the night of the wedding, around midnight, her wife called her to the bedroom:
"Let's lie down, my love."
They embraced, but the lieutenant couldn't do anything, since she was a girl too. Her wife hated her for it. At dawn she told her mother and father:
"Get rid of him, father, tie him to the tail of a steed, I hate him more than I loved him before."
"Let's wait, my daughter, see what God has in store for us. He is going to war the day after tomorrow. I treasure him as a son-in-law, and maybe he'll die in the war. Just for you, I won't have him murdered on purpose."
They saddled her horse the next day. She went to the stables all sad. Asked the horse:
"What's wrong, my dear master?"
"No one can help me now. You are saddled because we are going to battle. We will be up front, we will be the first to die."
The horse told her to hold on, and make sure she didn't fall off.
"I won't fall of a horse" she said "I learned how to ride."
They started out. They were on a hill, and there they found a standing crucifix. The horse saw the enemy first. It whinnied angrily, and the lieutenant was startled. They launched into a gallop, the rider grabbed onto the crucifix, the crucifix broke out of its foundation, and she held on to it fast. They were close to the enemy now. The enemy saw the gorgeous horse the first lieutenant was riding, and the face of the Lord Jesus on the crucifix. They pointed at it and rejoiced, saying the Lord had come in His grace. They put their weapons down, and the war was over. They made a truce.
The lieutenant returned to the king's house. Her wife saw her coming. She told her father:
"There he comes, the one we hoped would die."
The king said:
"I won't have him killed, he is the one that got us the truce and ended the war. I'll give him another order instead."
She was ordered to see the king.
"You are a decent man, my son, to bring peace with such a formidable foe. I have an order for you. You shall go to the Sun, and ask it why it rises so happy, and sets so sad."
She got to the Sun when it was rising. The Sun said:
"I rest at night, and I forget all I saw the day before. When I wake, I have no anger, I wake cheerfully.  But once I make it into the sky, I hear the blasphemies and the swearing, and I set sad because of it."
The lieutenant returned home with the answer. When she rode through the gates, her wife saw her.
"He is home again, father, do something about it! I can't get married again like this."
Said the king:
"I'll talk to him. What did the Sun say, my son?"
"The Sun said it rises so happy because at night it sees no disturbance, but when it is up in the sky it hears all the blasphemy. That's why it sets so sad."
The king understood that it was the truth and it was so.
"I will not get rid of him! Son, listen to me. The King of Russia owes me a heavy shipload of treasure. I have sent 99 officers to ask for the debt. He killed them all, did not let a single one go home."
"I will go if I must. I will listen to my father-in-law. I know he sends me to get rid of me. Ninety-nine officers have died, I'll make one hundred."
She went into the stables, very sad. The horse asked why she was so sad.
"I got an order from my father-in-law. He will keep sending us on errands until he is rid of me. We have to go to Russia. We have to get a shipload of treasure that is owed to the king. We are truly lost now."
The horse told her not to worry.
"God will help us, we shall bring home the treasure."
They set out, only the two of them on a galley, on the water. On the third night they anchored by a forest. The horse told its master:
"Go into this forest, my dear master, don't be afraid. You will meet a man. Hire this man to work for us. You will find a second one, hire that too. And the third one. This galley is too large, we can't manage it on our own."
She got all three servants hired. One of them was a woman, and she said:
"Let's all go up into the forest."
They found a beautiful house, the home of a hermit. The hermit wasn't home. They broke into the house, burned his food and furniture, tore up his books. They left him with nothing. They returned tot he ship and sailed on. The hermit, when he got home, cried.
"I don't have anything! What shall I do?"
Crying, he summoned all his knowledge. He cursed the ones that did this to him - and God listened to his words.
"If the culprits were women, make them into men, but if they were men, make them into women!"
The lieutenant was traveling with his friends. She suddenly noticed the horse was peeing. It used to pee like a mare before, and now it was peeing under his belly like a stallion. There was one woman among the servants before, and two men, one greedy, and the other very fast. They whispered among themselves.
"We used to be men, and now we are women."
The lieutenant stepped aside to pee, and he didn't have to crouch down either. He had a wand [literally: "beckoning stick"]. He was happy. He thought of his beautiful wife.
"If I get home alive, she will love me. I think this is what she was missing before."
The wise man [formerly the woman] said:
"We are almost there. My lord, they will greet us very nicely there. They will offer us seats at their table, give us all kinds of delicious food. But we should not eat, nor drink, until they load the money into the ship."
So they did.
"We won't eat, we won't drink, we are here to collect a debt. We'll take it without interest."
There was treasure uncounted, twelve cartloads of it, gold and silver.
"I want to see all these delivered! Do it right away. I brought just the ship that can carry this much treasure."
There was no excuse, they loaded up the treasure. The wise man told the lieutenant:
"They won't let us go without a feast. I know everything, I'll sit across the table from you. The old king will offer you all the wine, want to toast. Do not drink any wine until I nod to you."
The wise man waited until all the king's men were out of the hall, then nodded to the lieutenant. Then they clinked glasses with the king, and toasted.
"Bottoms up, brother!"
The king drank his cup, fell over, and died. The runner picked up the lieutenant, ran like the wind to the ship with him. They raised the anchor and set out with great speed. The river branched into three paths, and the wise man said:
"We should got his way. They are chasing us with soldiers and planes because the king is dead. If we don't hide, our life is over!"
The branch of the river flowed under great big trees. They anchored under the canopies, and as the planes passed by above, they couldn't see them.
"We checked all three branches of the river, and found no sign of them. They must have sunk with the heavy ship. We would have found them otherwise."
They reached the place where the helpers had been hired.
"Go in peace. We are home now. You just follow the current, the ship works fine, you will be home in twenty-four hours."
They made it home. They anchored. He went up to the palace to give a report to his father-in-law.
"Thank God, we are home. Please give the order, father, to send guards to the ship; there are no guards there now, someone might steal the treasures."
His wife heard his voice and ran into the room. Said the lieutenant:
"Father, your daughter is my wife, I wish to go take a walk with her."
"It is your right, son. She was happy to marry you. It is between you two, I will not take sides. I trust that you will not harm her."
He embraced his wife, but she kicked and struggled, didn't want to go. Said the king:
"Take her away, my son!"
He took her down to the gardens. Like in all royal gardens, were were benches everywhere to sit. He managed to sit his wife down onto a grass-covered mound.
"My soul, I love you" the lieutenant said to his wife.
"Don't push me!"
"Let's play!"
She got quiet. After a little rest, they played [had sex] five times. The wife was so happy, she even took her husband's tongue into her mouth. They rested, and then came back inside. The wife was practically floating above the ground as she clung to her husband.
"My love, why did you not do that sooner? I love you so much, I'll even make the bed for the both of us. You'll see how happy my mother and father will be. We'll have a great celebration! They'll invite all their friends."
Said the great prince [the former lieutenant]:
"It is a great thing indeed! For such hate to turn into such love."
Said the king:
"I hope the love will last till death."
Everyone wished them great luck and good health.
I have been there, but I could not get close enough to them. Otherwise I would have more to tell. They still live happily, if they have not died yet.

Story Saturday: The princess becomes a prince

This is me, musing out loud about representation.

I am preparing for a performance for Archaeology Day: I'm going to be telling Ossetian Nart sagas at a museum with a great Sarmatian collection (Sarmatians were nomadic people of Iranian origins who lived across the border from the Roman empire, and Ossetians are also people of Iranian origins who live in the Caucasus, hence the connection). I have a dress made and everything!

One of the stories I am working on falls into the tale type called the Shift of Sex (ATU 514), something intriguing I mentioned before when I talked about diversity in storytelling and also about LGBT+ related traditional stories. Now that I am actually working on my own version of telling it, I am doing some serious thinking about how to frame the story.

The summary

In most versions of this folktale I have encountered, the basic story is the same: Family's without a male heir, so their daughter goes out into the world dressed as a boy, and does many heroic deeds. Eventually she rises so high in the favor of the king/community that she is given a leading position/becomes heir. In order to fulfill her role, she is offered a wife, which throws a wrench in the plan, since her secret identity would be outed on the wedding night. Eventually, through blessing or curse, the girl turns into a man, marries the princess, and lives happily ever after.

The question

These folktales were told and recorded decades, often hundreds of years ago. How do I tell the story to make it ring true to people of trans/queer identities today?

The problem

In its current format the folktale suggests that the protagonist can only be accepted and happy if she physically transforms into a male body. Also, because of the different time these stories were born in, the physical transformation is necessary for the marriage to happen. In all versions the intended wife is kept in the dark, and is only presented with the resulting male body, without knowing about the transformation, or having an opinion about it.

The options

1. Build up to the sex change, suggesting it was the girl's own identity/wish/hope/goal all along. Make the male identity (and expression) a personal choice rather than a disguise out of necessity. This is not unprecedented in the tales: At least one version quotes the princess saying "men's clothes have always fit me better anyway." In this case, probably call the protagonist a boy after initially stating that they were born female.

2. Leave out the sex change / male identity and tell the tale as a lesbian love story. This would need more fiddling since the story is still set in a time and place (the Ossetian version anyway) where the protagonist couldn't come out as a girl AND marry another girl at the same time... probably. Female warriors do exist in Ossetian tradition, though.

3. Tell the tale as in option 1, but leave out the actual physical sex change. Have the protagonist come out to the chosen wife and be accepted (and loved). As far as everyone else is concerned, there is no change from what they know.

4. There are probably other options as well. I would love to hear comments and opinions on this.

The princess is a boy: Gender, sex and folktales

I have repeatedly told people that I have this list on my English blog and have repeatedly been reminded that I don't (I wrote it in Hungarian). So, this is a post that should have been created a long time ago. Sorry for the wait.
This is a far-from-complete list of traditional stories that I have encountered that have something to do with sex (as in, someone's biological), gender, sexuality, and shifts in all of those. While many people think these are "modern" topics, they are not. It is a selection of stories I have encountered, and because I think it is important to note that they exist, and even more important to examine them, talk about them, and tell them in context, I wanted to make this list available to the general public.

(*Note: All of these stories have their own take on things. They are good starting point for discussion, but I suggest giving them a lot of thought and craft before performance. Talk about them, and talk to many people. Ask for opinions, listen, make changes as you see fit.)

Same-sex love

Aristophanes' story of love
Okay, so maybe this one is pushing the definition of "traditional story" because we only know it from a literary source - Plato's Symposium. But it is nevertheless a famous example from the ancient world, re-told, among others, in Hedwig and the Angry Inch as The Origin of Love, and in Xena the Warrior Princess in the infamous Hercules crossover (which is the first time I heard it). The story essentially presents the origin of "soul mates" of three types: Men who seek men, women who seek women, and men/women who seek the other sex.

Hyacinth
A famous beauty for whom two gods, Apollo and Zephyrus competed. When the boy chose Apollo, Zephyrus killed him out of jealousy, and Apollo created a fragrant and colorful flower for his memory.

The angel page
This is a story I found in Legends of the Rhine; it belongs to the city of Elberfeld. While it is not explicitly a love story between the young knight and his page / squire, it lends itself easily to that reading. In the end, the page turns out to be an angel, and after any adventures he sacrifices his life on earth to save the knight's dying wife. It is a touching story in any way.

Sex/gender change
(**Note: English does not really lend itself to gender-neutral writing. Excuse my mixed pronouns.)

Iphis
A story from Ovid's Metamorphoses (Book 9.666-797) in which a girl is raised as a boy to deceive her strict father. She falls in love with and gets engaged by her father to a girl who loves her back, thinking that she is a boy. The day before the wedding Iphis prays to the goddess Isis to grant her a wish for change, and the goddess turns her into a man, after which he happily marries the girl he loves.

The princess that turned into a man
This one is a Hungarian folktale; I have the short translation if anyone needs it. It is about a king that only has daughters, and when he has to send his army to war his youngest volunteers saying "men's clothes have always fit me better anyway." On the way she helps out an old woman who sees her for who she is, and helps her with her mission. She falls in love with the daughter of their ally, and gets married, but is afraid to reveal herself to her wife, and therefore the king thinks she is cheating and plans to have her killed. She is sent on a dangerous mission during with, among many adventures, she and her entire crew come under a spell that makes them switch sexes. Our hero is more than happy with the "curse" and returns home immediately to finally admit his full affection for his wife. Explicit folktale bonking ensues.

Tiresias
Another Greek classic. Remember the old blind prophet from the Odyssey? Well, according to legend, he spent seven years as a woman, in some versions of the story as a sacred prostitute in Corinth, while according to others as a wife and a mother. After seven years the spell got reversed, and Tiresias was a man again. This ties into him being blind: Apparently Hera blinded him after he was called on to decide a debate between Zeus and her about who enjoys sex more, men or women (wouldn't we all want to know). Tiresias said women enjoy sex TEN times more (suspiciously accurate number), and was blinded by the goddess and given the gift of prophecy by Zeus as a consolation prize.

The princess and the demon
This one is another favorite of mine, from India. Starts out similarly then Iphis, except in this version the prince(ss) meets a tree spirit/demon on the way to the wedding, and agrees to exchange sexes with him for a year. At the end of the year he returns to the site of the deal, and finds the tree spirit happily married and pregnant. They both agree they like their new sex better, and stay that way.

The warrior girl
I have blogged about this one earlier. It is a Spanish take on the Mulan story, and a prince that can't take "none of your business" for an answer.

The princess who became a man
I heard this story at the Mysteries of Europe storytelling conference in Spain, from Heidi Dahlsveen, a Norwegian storyteller. It is a Norwegian folktale about a princess whom her father wants to marry, so she runs away from home. Later she cuts off her breasts and dresses as a man, and works in a king's court until the princess falls in love with the mysterious soldier and they get married. The princess find out on the wedding night the story of her husband, and she is okay with it. But someone else, listening in (not cool) tells the king, and the king decides to order all the soldiers to undress and find out the truth. With the help of a magical old man, the young soldier avoids humiliation. He goes on to have a baby with the princess, whom the magical old man uses to illustrate a point about letting go of the pains of the past.

Caeneus
Another story from Ovid's Metamorphoses. It is a Greek myth about a girl that is "ravaged" by Poseidon, who then offers to reward her with a wish (how generous) (Poseidon's a dick). Caenis asks to be turned into a man so she can never feel helpless again. This story speaks more to gender difference and sexism, but it is interesting to note that Caeneus then goes on to be a hero among the Greeks and the father of an Argonaut.

That's it for now.
For a very useful interactive map of cultures that have more than two genders, click here.

Just What ARE You Anyway? - A folktale about gender and confusion

Today I found a collection of gitano folktales in Spanish; I bought it a couple of years ago at the Maratón de Cuentos in Guadalajara, read a few of the stories, and then got distracted by another continent. Browsing through it this time I came across a folktale that caught my interest for its treatment of gender roles and expressions.
There is a lot to say about gender fluidity and gender identities, and a lot of it has already been said. I would merely like to add my two cents, and a folktale, to the discussion.

The folktale in this particular case is titled "The Warrior Girl" but it is a type that exists in other forms and in other cultures as well (including Hungarian). At the beginning of the story, we learn that there is a man with seven daughters, which is a great shame, because if a family cannot send a son to the king's army, they are not respected by others. Moving on, the youngest daughter offers to go and take her place in the army (think Hua Mulan), but her father tells her that she can't do it, because she is a girl. Hearing that, she decides to go disguised as a man. The father argues further: She can't pass for a man because her hair is long, and her breasts are full. The girl doesn't give up: She cuts her hair and puts on clothes that conceal her breasts. This is apparently good enough for the father, who begrudgingly allows her to go.
However, arriving to the king's court, the girl soon catches the prince's eyes, who insists to his father that he would wager his life that the young soldier is, indeed, a girl in a man's clothes. "She has too delicate a face to be a man," he says. The king doesn't quite believe his son, but suggests a test: He should invite her for a walk in the palace gardens, and if she goes to admire the flowers, she is a girl. The girl, however, goes for the pear tree instead and picks some fruit, as she says, for herself and for her (female) sweetheart.
At this point the prince's naughty bits are confused, and he opts for another sure-fire test: He takes her shopping. Girls, he reasons, go for the textiles at the market. This one, however, goes for the swords, preparing for battle (since she is, you know, a soldier).
The prince, who has entirely too much frustration going on in his pants, now decides he should just see her naked and tell what she is based on her... er, equipment. But when he invites her for a swim, she jumps into the water fully clothed, claiming that she had made a sacred oath not to undress until the war is over.
The prince gives up.
And then: Divine intervention.
Gearing up for battle, the mysterious soldier's sword breaks. She curses the sword, and curses herself (in a frustrated, "**** me" kind of phrase), revealing her true gender: She refers to herself with a female pronoun (this really only works in Spanish, sorry). Ta-da! The prince is happy to find out that the object of his fascination indeed identifies as female, and therefore she is fair game. He asks her to marry him right away, and the folktale goes out with a happy bang.

Sooo... yeah. I'll just leave this here as food for thought.