---
title: "Politics of the Buddha's Genitals"
authors: [sujato]
external_url: "https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/the-politics-of-the-buddha-s-genitals/4876?u=khemarato.bhikkhu"
drive_links:
  - "https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kHPSeZMnSJjcIXZ_hGMs97mHO17kM1wO/view?usp=drivesdk"
year: 2017
month: apr
course: buddha
status: featured
tags:
  - gender
  - indian
pages: 3
---

> It is inescapable that, whatever the reading, according to the early texts the Buddha did not have "normal" genitals. And the only reading actually supported by a canonical text is that the Buddha was intersex, and his genitals looked like a woman’s.