Traditionally as heads of household, men are revered and the women who attend them utterly subservient. This is no mean advantage in an area known for sexual inequality and where so many men have suffered violent, premature deaths, thereby heightening the need for more household heads. What is interesting is that in this region of the Balkans, simply to dress as a man and to behave as a man will earn these women the same respect accorded a man. These women must foreswear sexual relationships, marriage and children. In short, their lives are much freer and less regimented than other members of their sex - but at a cost. They crop their hair, wear men's clothes, roll their own cigarettes, drink brandy and carry guns. But such rigid notions are overturned by certain women in remote regions of Albania who elect to 'become' men simply for the advantages that accrue to them as a result. Most people conceive of gender as a culturally informed response to a biological imperative.
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