Hijras Of Indi Challenging The Sexually Dimorphic...

Hijras of India: Challenging the Sexually Dimorphic Construction of Gender The Hijras of India are typically born male, but they undergo ritual surgery to remove their male genitals in order to establish a new gender identity (Guest, 2014). The Hijras identify with the Hindu Mother Goddess, Bahuchara Mata, who is generally represented as transgendered (Guest, 2014). They typically dress and talk like women, although they are not seen as male nor female (Guest, 2014). They may also engage in sex with men. Because Hijras identify with the Hindu Goddess, they are revered as a sacred figure, but at the same time, they are marginalized in society. They live according to an established code of conduct in communities known as â€Å"gharanas† (Patel,†¦show more content†¦While Hijras live in a culture that accepts them and their transgender identity, Indian culture appears to be influenced by the pervasive dominance of sexual dimorphism in the Western hemisphere, as Hijras are simultaneously seen with fear and criticism. They refuse to identify with the male gender, although they are often born as males (Lal, 1999). Hijras identify themselves in complex and seemingly contradictory forms, demonstrating that they cannot be put into a box along sexually dimorphic lines: â€Å"Hijras are impotent, but they replenish themselves and are believed to hold the power of fertility and infertility over others; they are born men, but they disavow the male sex; they often indulge in homosexual behavior, but contemptuously dismiss homosexuals as not of their kind; and while construing themselves as women, they cannot experience the cycles of menstruation, pregnancy, birth, lactation, or menopause, which, at least to some degree, characterize the biological and cultural lives of women† (Lal, 1999, p. 129). Thus, Hijras characterize ambiguity, and they embrace an identity that is uniquely distinct from the traditional views of male and female. Serena Nanda’s ethnographic observation analyzes the complex position of the Hijra in Indian society (Guest, 2014). Nanda explains that â€Å"†¦the hijra role continues to be sustained by a culture in which religion still gives positive meaning to gender