Jins al-Thalithالجنس الثالث

'The Third Sex: What Plato Told Me On His Deathbed'. A book of thought by Lebanese poet, journalist and writer Joumana Haddad. The book looks beyond the question of sex, in the sense of gender, and approaches the fundamental question of how to be human. Haddad looks at the human identity, in the context that if the third sex is not gender (or race, etc), then existing classifications limit us and poison our truth.

Does it really take courage to discuss what we are afraid of, or maybe even ashamed of?

I am long past this question. Now, when I write, I mainly seek to discover more of my layers, to raise my level of consciousness, to help others and myself. I don’t see the red flags, I don’t hear the warnings, and I don’t care about the land mines that could explode under my feet.

I simply ambush myself, and then I charge at it and peel off my skins until I am completely naked on paper. That’s when I become both the voyeur and the exhibitionist; the banquet and its host. And every time a bomb blows up in my face I feel ecstatic, because then I will be able to gift pieces of my own flesh to the readers.