Nature in her rawest form doesn’t put barriers in ways of expression; sexuality is one of these expressions that can be explored, imagined, translated, and experienced in different magnitudes. Everyone has the right to be who they are and to follow their deepest intentions.
Back to the Roots: A Wild Declaration of Freedom and Sexuality | Priyanka Singh
Imagine a rose seed. We water the seed, provide needed sunlight, and let her emerge in the perfect environment. When she starts to blossom, we expect her to bloom with sunflowers instead of roses. Is it even possible for a rose to start blooming as a sunflower? To state the obvious, absolutely not. We are trying to elaborate on human nature and sexuality on the same spectrum. When we define sexuality and try to confine it to a particular gender role by saying one way is correct while disregarding the other, we are making the same mistake.
Nature in her rawest form doesn’t put barriers in ways of expression; sexuality is one of these expressions that can be explored, imagined, translated, and experienced in different magnitudes. Everyone has the right to be who they are and to follow their deepest intentions.
Single-cell bacteria such as Prokaryotes are capable of reproducing by themselves and are asexual. Animals like bonobos, giraffes, Japanese macaques, birds like Chilean flamingos, western gulls, black swans, and some penguins show a different spectrum of sexuality. Flowers such as lilies, roses, sunflowers, tulips, and daffodils are examples of bisexual flowers that are pollinated with the help of different pollinators. Nature doesn’t discriminate, and all beings just perform their cycles without this discrimination.
When there is no bias from the creator, then how did we humans start considering one of the most authentic expressions of human nature to be unnatural?
I’m Priyanka Singh, founder and EIC of Planted Journal, and I’m here to take you on a journey of freedom through the wilderness. The limitation of gender type has divided the community and oppressed many. We are here to understand how these barriers were formed, so we can finally let go of them.
As mentioned previously, homosexuality can be traced to nature. It’s not necessary that only the opposite gender feel sexual attraction. It is an important factor for procreation; however, same-sex relationships can be considered a grooming activity. Non-human primates, including apes, indulge in same-sex alliances, and these behaviours are certainly ancestral to hominids (NIH). Same-sex alliances provide appeasement, pacification, reinforcement of social dominance structures, juvenile play, social tolerance, stress reduction, and barter contraceptive benefits to primates.
Human society accepted such relations, and this can be found in the history of many civilizations. The Mesopotamian ancient religious text contains divine prayers for homosexual relationships (worldhistory.org). These sorts of alliances were formed for pedagogical purposes and birth control. The Celts also indulged in the free expression of homogeneity. All across the world, from China, Japan, Alaska, Africa, Europe, North America, and South America, these practices were recorded in early humans.
The indigenous community, however, has always been far more advanced than Western society, even in matters of free expression. Two-spirit people were embraced to perform some specific ceremonies; according to them, they were blessed and guided by the spirits in finally becoming their true selves. “Some terms speak directly to the idea of duality, as variations on “man-woman” (or “not-man-not-woman”), like the Crow bote and the Shoshoni tainna wa’ippe; others rely on elision and evocation, from the Navajo nádleehé (“one who is transformed”) to the Osage mixu’ga (“instructed by the moon”) to the Cherokee asegi udanto (“other heart”). (The New York Times).
To me, the reason they welcome such authenticity is because they understand the calling of the spirits. Being in nature certainly evolves one’s perception by acknowledging everything as it is and finding beauty in it.
Gender stereotypes are a result of so-called modernization, where dividing society and organising it into particular family units became beneficial for some. Language has its part to play in this chaos. The Indigenous language expresses animacy and is not limited to he/she/him/her (which is common in most of the languages), further dividing the gender. Various suffrage movements focusing on the ‘rights of man’ created a reality where the definition of ‘man’ took on a whole new meaning and is still a cause of struggle for basic rights in society for minorities. Further down the line, colonisation suppressed any behaviour that was expressive beyond the general acceptance of oppressors’ customs, and hence some communities in various parts of the world may have also lost their practices.
We are tracing these roots back to the beginning, and it’s only a start. The idea is to be wild once again, and I would like to say that no matter how much we institutionalise ourselves, nature eventually takes over and wilderness prevails.
All these different forms of sexuality are part of our core that resonates with nature. No laws would stop birds from migrating, fish from swimming, and humans from being wild.
No one could and no one can be more powerful than the desires that are given to us from the spirits, from our creator.
Dima Samarin Photographed by Lorenzo Cermona, Art Direction and Words by Priyanka Singh
