{"id":5637,"date":"2026-06-23T10:43:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T14:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/?p=5637"},"modified":"2026-06-23T10:46:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T14:46:18","slug":"dharmas-of-gender-in-later-theravada-scholasticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/2026\/06\/23\/dharmas-of-gender-in-later-theravada-scholasticism\/","title":{"rendered":"Dharmas of \u201cGender\u201d in Later Therav\u0101da Scholasticism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Volume 33, 2026<br \/>\n<H3>Wrestling with Essentialism: the Dharmas of \u201cGender\u201d in Later Therav\u0101da Scholasticism<\/h3>\n<p>Bruno M. Shirley<br \/>\nHeidelberg University<\/p>\n<p>This article provides a history of gendered ontology in later Therav\u0101da commentaries and compendia. While the canonical Therav\u0101da <em>Abhidhamma<\/em> sets out a model of gender based on binary <em>dharmas<\/em>\u2014distinct <em>indriyas<\/em> (\u201cfaculties\u201d) of femininity and masculinity\u2014this seems to have been poorly received by later commentators, who repeatedly reconceptualized the <em>dharmic<\/em> foundations of gender. I suggest that this is due to the inadequacy of binary and essentialized models to account for the wide diversity of gender experiences depicted in the canonical <em>Vinaya<\/em>, with implications for contemporary arguments for gender essentialism.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/files\/2026\/06\/SHIRLEY_Wrestling-with-Essentialism-final.pdf\"> Read article<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Volume 33, 2026 Wrestling with Essentialism: the Dharmas of \u201cGender\u201d in Later Therav\u0101da Scholasticism Bruno M. Shirley Heidelberg University This article provides a history of gendered ontology in later Therav\u0101da commentaries and compendia. While the canonical Therav\u0101da Abhidhamma sets out a model of gender based on binary dharmas\u2014distinct indriyas (\u201cfaculties\u201d) of femininity and masculinity\u2014this seems &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/2026\/06\/23\/dharmas-of-gender-in-later-theravada-scholasticism\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Dharmas of \u201cGender\u201d in Later Therav\u0101da Scholasticism<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":317,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[333313],"tags":[2777,2824,1231,333329,2592,48573],"class_list":["post-5637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-volume-33-2026","tag-abhidamma","tag-buddhaghosa","tag-gender","tag-indriyas","tag-theravada","tag-transgender"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5X8HA-1sV","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5637"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5641,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5637\/revisions\/5641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}