With Respect To Sex
Chapter- 1
This chapter will present a historiography of the transgender or the ‘third sex’ in the Indian sub-continent. It will look into the political and legal debates that have for long surrounded this community. It will then look at the contemporary cultural classifications of the ‘third gender’ and the challenges that they face together against pandemics like AIDS. With globalization and advancement in science coming in the picture it will also very briefly look at how clinical science explains transgenderism and intersexuality in children and adolescents.
Gayatri Reddy, in her book With Respect to Sex writes that there are four “distinct constructions” of the “third sex”(i.e, the transgender) dominating the existent literature, mainly
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These myths and folktales are more than just a literary history of the transgender in India as they structure their social and cultural reality. Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai in their book Same-Sex Love in India: A Literary History and Devdutt Pattnaik in his recent book Shikhandi and Other Tales They Don’t Tell you anthologize various myths and narratives originating about transgender subjectivities in India. There are myths from Buddhist, Hindu and Jain traditions dating back to three thousand years before …show more content…
Reddy argues that “the act of penetration in sexual intercourse and doing “[gendered] work,” serve as central axes around which hijras and other kotis configure their identities” and “Claims to identity are negotiated, contested and refuted by these individuals” (Reddy 44). It is according to their sex/gender performativity and bodily practices that they are categorized as kothi rather than anatomy being the principal feature in demarcating the kothi categories.Derived majorly from Reddy’s ethnographical study of kothis in Hyderabad, and partly from Kavi’s article on MSM, I provide a brief description of kothi categories in India, as follows:
Hijras
Hijras are the central visibly “othered” transgender figures in India. They have been classified into nirvana hijras, akwa hijras and khada-kothis. Hijras refer to themselves as kothis, making a clear demarcation of themselves with the panthis. Nirvan hijras are ritually castrated men who are part of hijra ‘gharanas’ or ritual houses. Akwa hijras are the hijras who are in preparation of castration after entering one of the hijra’ gharanas. Khada-kothis are biological males who wear male clothing and also cross-dress. They leave their natal families and join the hijra gharanas often due to societal pressure.
Zenana
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