Saher Husain Week 5.

“Beards, Breasts, And Bodies Doing Sex in A Gendered World” by Raine Dozier explains the relationship between gender and sex and how, according to her, sex, gender and sexuality are socially constructed. The author tries to show how even though gender and sex a perceived to be connected, in many ways these both are quite different or distinct aspects of a human being in a way that sex is not the initiating part of gender but an integral one. Trans-sexuality, according to the author, is represented by gender identity and sexuality in a way that is not dependent on social interaction but comes from the individual themselves. The concept of masculinity and femininity, as understood from the case studies, stems from the fact that sex is correlated to gender and formation of gender identity, which creates problems because of the fact that individuals who call themselves transgender are not perceived in the same manner by the society which then compels them to sometimes take hormones in order to also look the way they feel or want to be seen because society does not look at them the same way. People then change their behaviour or way of living not because they want to but so that society can also see them the same way they look at themselves. Thus, a balance has to be maintained between how you behave and how to appear in order to be able to live the way you want because otherwise the society does not let you live the way you desire.

In “Decolonizing Transgender in India Some Reflections” by Aniruddha Dutta and Raina Roy, the authors try to argue how the term “transgender” has been used as an umbrella term encompassing all different kinds of gender identities which creates a problem because of the fact that different gender identities which are distinguishable on the basis of caste or class as well are not taken completely into account. The amount of diversity as seen by the authors in the regional and local part of South Asia, according to the authors, cannot be covered in just one term. The authors try to explain the emergence of transgender as an identity through the author’s own experience and from studies in eastern part of India. A form of Hierarchy or division within gender itself can be seen within the Transgender spectrum which leads to discrimination and demarcation of individuals within the spectrum because of the difference in their behavioural aspects or also their socio-political background. Different layers are then formed within this hierarchy that are distinguishable regionally, where Transgender is just the central heading, forming their own spatial spectrum. These different layers include the discrimination on the basis of masculinity or femininity, rich or poor, cross-dresser or not and homosexual or queer, which the author explains are the identities though exclusive of each other, still come under the umbrella of being a Transgender because of singular identities. Thus, through the article we realise that even though Transgender is mainly used as an umbrella term, there are assumptions and speculations behind it which are many a times ignored which can lead to the issue of generalising different types of gender identities, hence ignoring or devaluing the diverse nature that are found in many individuals and in their way of self identification.

Submitted by - Saher Husain (18010673)