Noch man noch vrouw

‘[Congenital eunuchs] form a third class of half men, in addition to hermaphrodites and eunuchs.’ In his Natural History, Pliny identifies (congenital) eunuchs and hermaphrodites as gender variables that are neither male nor female. These gender variables are heuristically called the third gender, which offers the opportunity for scholars to study gender variables that do not conform to a binary sex/gender system of male and female. These gender variables have always existed and various historical environments have discussed who and what they are and how to place them in society. As Pliny demonstrates, ancient Rome discussed the third gender as well. Unfortunately, these debates are generally overlooked by academia. Therefore, by means of an introduction to the third gender, this article examines medical and legal sources that discuss the perception and regulation of eunuchs and hermaphrodites as a third gender. In this article, I will argue that studying the third gender exposes (implicit) ideas and ontologies about the binary gender system and notions of masculinity and femininity. As a result, this article forms an important introductory historical perspective to modern gender debates about gender variables and the binary system.