Gender Diversity Within U.S. and World Art History

Did you know that worldwide, most cultures allowed people of all genders to create art and to serve as models for art throughout pre-colonial history? In some cultures, gender roles did not affect artists, and some cultures—for instance, some Nigerian tribes—did not have gender roles at all. Meanwhile, in some tribes within Turtle Island (now also referred to as the United States), different art forms were considered to be the norm for different genders, and which art form was considered typical of which gender was unique to each tribe. Most tribes did, however, recognize three or more genders, and generally allowed people to fulfill whichever tribal roles they seemed better suited to, including artistic roles.

Throughout European art history, you’ll see drastically high levels of gender disparity in fine art. Most historical European artists we know of were men or male. People presenting as female were generally barred from performing any work that was not domestic (cleaning, cooking, raising children, etc.). That said, many upperclass, white women were trained in various art forms—painting, singing, musical instruments, and embroidery—but their education was limited to skills considered by men to be desirable talents in a prospective wife and mother. All education ceased once a woman was married because her role was now confined to showing off her skills at domestic parties, entertaining her husband and children, producing and raising children, and coordinating household affairs and staff assignments. Women were discouraged from making original creations such as composing their own music, and were generally not allowed to sell any physical art they created. Women of lower classes were generally sold as wives to the highest bidders without any education, and were made to keep house and cook meals in addition to producing and raising children. Substrates such as canvas and mediums such as paint were prohibitively costly.

European men were allowed to work, but making a living as an artist was even harder then than it is now. Paint was incredibly expensive and difficult to find or make. Most work as an artist had to be commissioned by rich benefactors, such as dukes, lords, kings, and churches. Artists were generally penniless and survived on rare and occasional high-value commissions, during which they were sometimes treated poorly by the buyer and given no artistic license for self-expression. This is why even artists we know to have been gay, such as Michelangelo and Caravaggio, often depicted biblical stories or Christian-oriented gender norms in their works, with only their smaller or fewer works comprising their own authentic expression. Many artists were often hired by Catholic or Christian clergy to depict religious themes, such as religious values and stories, exactly as the clergy wanted them depicted. The control over wealth and power allowed the extremely rich to essentially control society by influencing societal perceptions, encouraging obedience to Christian norms, and belief in the Christian faith during peaceful times. During times of war or societal unrest, the rich and powerful hired artists to depict the patriotism and self-sacrifice they wanted the poor to admire and aspire to.

Many people believe that trans people are a new or even nonexistent phenomena because they weren’t provided with enough education, in-person connection, or visual depictions of trans people in modern-day times and in historical contexts. Due to our nationwide lack of inclusive education, many people believe that this misconception has arisen from trans people being excluded from art and textual records throughout global history. But actually, trans people have not only been in existence for as long as human beings have existed, but have been depicted in the artwork and written texts produced by nearly every culture on earth. The reason most people don’t know this, and can’t name a single historical piece of gender-inclusive art, is due to the almost completely successful widespread efforts of Western Colonizers who sought out and destroyed all instances of gender diversity in art and culture within every community of human beings they found and violently colonized, which was most communities across the entire planet. Here in this presentation, I’ll show you some examples of gender-inclusive art that survived colonization by being hidden away, or by being so inherently difficult for Europeans to decipher that the colonizers did not know the artifacts matched their criteria for destruction.

Historical Art Representing Gender Diversity

In 1626, Spanish painter Juan van der Hamen painted Alonso Díaz de Guzmán, who presented in masculine and nonbinary ways and was originally born as Catalina de Erauso.

Oil painting of a person of pale complexion with black hair down to their ear lobes stares into the distance while wearing a metal collar and fabric tunic.

In 1792, English painter Thomas Stewart painted Chevalier d’Eon, who expressed herself as female and lived according female roles for most of her life following only a brief amount of her early life in which she presented as male and worked in military and diplomatic positions only males were allowed to work. She was born Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée d’Éon de Beaumont.

Oil painting of a person with fair complexion and long, curly, gray hair gazes gently ahead while wearing a black hat with white feathers and a black grown with a white collar and a military medal pinned to the bodice by a red ribbon.

In ancient Rome, circa 3rd century, carved stone reliefs depicted Galli— eunuch priests who worshipped the earth-goddess Cybele. Though assigned male at birth, these priests castrated themselves and went by she/her pronouns.

A stone relief of people draped in robes, one standing with a child in front of them, and one standing and holding decorative objects.

Roman emperor Elagabalus, is widely considered a trans ancestor (or trancestor). Elagabalus desired castration, considered an ancient equivalent of gender affirming surgery, and was believed to have preferred she/her pronouns.

Stone carving of a person's head with short, ruffled hair

Most South and East Asian cultures held deep respect for non-binary and intersex individuals. Androgyny was even revered in both Hinduism and Buddhism.

Left: Ardhanarishvara, relief sculpture from the Elephanta Caves, 5th–7th century C.E., Mumbai, India (photo: Isabell Schulz, CC BY-SA 2.0); right: Guanyin of the Southern Sea, China, 11th/12th century, Lio (907–1125) or Jin Dynasty (1115–1234), polychromed wood (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art)

Pillared hall dedicated to Shiva (who combined her energy with that of the male deity, Parvati, to create an androgynous deity).

In India and South Asia, “hijra” is a term from the ancient text, the Kama Sutra, and was used to describe eunuchs, intersex people, transgender people, a third gender, or gender ambivalence. Bahuchara Mata (depicted in the 1800’s gouache painting below) is one of the various Hindu deities who is a patron for trans communities in India.

A person gazes contentedly ahead while riding atop a chicken the size of a pony. Their multiple arms wield various types of ceremonial artifacts and weapons. Around them, people stand holding similar objects of their own as they gaze up at the deity.

Avalokiteshvara (called Guanyin in China), is alternatively represented in ancient sculpture and painted art as male or female or with varying features that defy strict gender categorization.

A gold statue depicts a physically androgynous person gazing downward and resting their chin against a relaxed fist whose elbow is propped up on a bent knee.

In Japan, the pre-modern term Wakashu described adolescents assigned male at birth but who presented as female. They were a third/separate gender category, and were understood to be attracted to, and desired by, men and women alike. They were featured in art by the partially shaved crown of the forehead, which would be completely shaved once they came of age (after puberty).

Hosoda Eisui, Wakashu with a Shoulder-Drum, late 18th or early 19th century. A young person with a partially shaved head holds a drum against one shoulder.

In Egypt, there is a mortuary temple and large kneeling statue of Hatshepsut: A Pharaoh who presented as both traditionally male and female

Stone statue of a physically androgynous person wearing the royal headdress typical of pharaohs.

The Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep IV, who changed his name to Ahkenaton, was the husband of Nefertiti and father of Tutankhamun. Ahkenaton is often described as having an androgynous appearance, believed to be due to him possibly having had Kleinfelter’s syndrome (having XXY chromosomes), which would account for his enlarged breasts and also the enlarged shape of his pelvis.

A stone relief of Ahkenaton (left) and Nefertiti (right) playing with their children while sitting on cushioned stools.

In 2450, in Sumer, a region of ancient Mesopotamia, priests referred to as gala were depicted in stone sculptures as wearing societally-defined male dress but were shown beardless, and in texts they were described as having female characteristics and fluid sexuality.

Two people stand side by side with their hands clasped, their faces and the sides of their heads shaved, their bodies draped in layered dresses.

In pre-modern Mali in West Africa, Nommo were ancestral spirits who were described as androgynous or intersex. Various descriptions of “gender transformation” among followers of such deities was documented in more than twenty African societies prior to western colonization. In many parts of Africa, pre-modern tribes did not even have words for “men” or “women” and therefore did not have gender-based segregation or discrimination, until they were forced to adopt such concepts during western colonization, during which the native people were burned alive if they did not adopt western gender norms and the Christian Faith. Much artwork, especially that which depicted gender and sexual fluidity and diversity, were destroyed by the colonists, leaving only written text records and few works of art from which to remember the pre-colonial era tribal cultures.

“Intersex Figure Reaching for a Dagger”, Dogon Peoples, Mali, date currently unknown (pre-colonial time period)

1000-1400: Ceramic sculptures were created by natives in the Andes in South America that explicitly depicted diverse sexualities as well as male, female, and intersex bodies

Sculpture of an androgynous person kneeling in front of a male person and touching their genitals (left), and a sculpture of a male person mounting an androgynous person who is on all fours (right).

Gender Diversity in Modern Art

Claude Cahun (born as Lucy Schwob), was a French photographer, sculptor, and writer who defied all gender norms both in their life and in their art, and changed their name to gender-ambiguous Claude in 1917.

Claude Cahun (Lucy Schwob), Untitled. 1921–22. (Artist’s self-portrait). Black and white photo of an androgynous-presenting person wearing a black suit.

Frida Kahlo also often defied gender and beauty norms both in art and in personal life.

Frida Kahlo. Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair. 1940. Frida wears a suit that is too large, sits in a chair, and holds scissors. Surrounding Frida are severed clumps of hair.

In the 1960’s Jack Smith’s artistic film Flaming Creatures swiftly became infamous on a national scale for featuring men wearing makeup and gowns, and being showered with flower petals. The film included uniquely zoomed and angled shots of flower bouquets, eyes, mouths, entangled limbs, and genitals. The film quickly became banned in 22 states and was even brought before the U.S. Supreme Court in a censorship battle.

Jack Smith. Flaming Creatures. 1963. A person wearing a long, curly wig leans back as they drop flower bulbs onto their own face.

Joan Jonas used distorted filming techniques to create short films that challenged femininity and removed the viewer’s ability to see her body clearly and to therefore sexually objectify her.

Joan Jonas. Vertical Roll. 1972. A distorted image of a woman lying down, smiling loosely, and wearing a loose blouse.

Laurie Simmons staged and photographed dolls within dollhouses to capture the confining, boring, depressing, and demanding, moments women in the 50’s through 70’s were experiencing within the roles of dolled-up housewives condemned by the patriarchal American society to endlessly keep a perfect house for the convenience of White men.

Laurie Simmons. Blonde/Red Dress/Kitchen, from the series Interiors. 1978. A doll is posed in the act of pulling out a chair at a kitchen table covered with food and condiments within a traditional kitchen.

Richard Prince began tearing pages out of magazines in the 70’s and began to turn them into compositions in the 80’s and 90’s, often using published and unpublished advertisements by Malboro to create juxtapositions that challenged White, American ideas about masculinity and what society has trained us to believe it means to be a man in post-colonized Turtle Island (also referred to as the United States).

Richard Prince. Untitled (almost original). 2006. A drawing of a man wearing a cowboy hat rides a horse and throws a looped rope around in the air (left). A vibrant photo of a canyon wall (right).

In the 1980’s, Robert Gober began his sculptor career by making eerie, distorted replicas of domestic artifacts—kitchen sinks, drains, cribs, and beds—to allude to a difficult childhood. By the 1990’s, he evolved to recreating existing newspapers using his own images that challenged societal norms, including this one, in which created a fake bridal gown advertisement featuring himself wearing a bridal gown and a wig and veil, juxtaposed with an article about Catholic discrimination of gay people.

Robert Gober. Untitled. 1992–96. Robert wears a white wedding gown and veil and holds a bouquet of flowers down at his side as he gazes away forlornly.

Graciela Iturbide is a trans-inclusive cisgender Oaxacan artist whose photos depict Oaxacan people and culture.

 “Magnolia,” Juchitán, Oaxaca, México, 1986 - a silver gelatin photograph of a person who is muxe (a non-binary third gender in México) who wears a flowery gown and a necklace and is holding up a mirror.

Kent Monkman is a Two-Spirit artist who reimagines history and repaints historical artworks using a multiculturally aware, colonization-critical lens to make factual points about the violent truths of North American history and to un-erase queer people from the historical art narrative that has been otherwise gate-kept and driven by queerphobic, Christianity-funded historical art.

Painting of a lake surrounded by a forest and foggy, ice-capped mountains and populated by over a dozen people of fair complexion relaxing or messing around while a person of brown complexion paints a canvas with the words "History is painted by the victor."

Cassils is a trans, performance artist striving to challenge gender norms and biological assumptions.

A photo of Cassils that was featured on the front cover of Oxford History of Art's "After Modern Art 1945-2017 David Hopkins" issue. The photo features Cassils topless, flexing their muscles as they stand with their arms at their sides and gaze into the distance. They are wearing red lipstick and their chest, which has not had top surgery and does have nipple piercings, is on full display.

Gender Disparity in Post-Modern Art

Today, only 39% of current gallery sales are for artwork made by women, despite women earning 76% of the college art degrees issued each year.

Women artists earn 80 cents per every dollar that is earned by artists who are men.

A recent survey of the permanent collections of 18 prominent U.S. art museums found that the represented artists are 87% male and 85% white. Between 2008 and 2020, just 0.5% of acquisitions at 31 representative U.S. museums were of work by Black American women.

Between 2008 and mid-2022, art by women comprised only 3.3% of all art auction sales, while art by Black American women comprised just 0.1%.

Little research has been conducted on the earnings and representation of trans artists. The numbers and percentages are currently considered too small to even count.

However, this is not to mean that trans people can’t make a living as an artist. Thanks to President Trump’s determination to make the threat of Project 2025 and trans genocide a reality, there is a greater than ever need for, and therefore public value for, trans and intersectional art. There are trans and/or artists of color out there working very hard to earn a modest but livable living right now. And you can, too.

References

Dr. Bryan C. Keene, "An Art History of Gender Identity and Sexuality," in Reframing Art History, Smarthistory, March 17, 2022, https://smarthistory.org/reframing-art-history/an-art-history-of-gender-identity-and-sexuality/

Jack Faragasso, The Student's Guide to Painting: Revised and Expanded Edition (Dover Art Instruction), Dover Publications, November 18, 2020

James Gurney, Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter (Volume 2), Andrews McMeel Publishing, November 30, 2010

Juliette Aristides, Classical Painting Atelier: A Contemporary Guide to Traditional Studio Practice, Watson-Guptill, November 15, 2011

National Museum of Women in the Arts, “Get the Facts About Women in the Arts,” May 19, 2025, https://nmwa.org/support/advocacy/get-facts/

Museum of Modern Art, “Constructing Gender,” 2025, https://www.moma.org/collection/terms/investigating-identity/constructing-gender

Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí, The Invention of Woman, University of Minnesota Press, 1997

Robert Zeller, The Figurative Artist’s Handbook: A Contemporary Guide to Figure Drawing, Painting, and Composition, Monacelli Studio, 2016