Centre for South Asian Studies

Description

Dr Adnan Hossain, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow will present on 'Hijras in South Asia: Rethinking the Dominant Representations'.

The session will be chaired by Dr Delwar Hussain, Anthropology, University of Edinburgh.

Based on long-term ethnographic research with hijras, the emblematic figure of South Asian sexual and gender difference, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, this talk proposes the hijra as a counter-cultural formation that embodies not only a direct contrast to hegemonic patterns of masculinity but also as an alternative subculture offering the possibility of varied forms of erotic pleasures and practices otherwise forbidden in mainstream society. While most studies view hijras as an asexual, emasculated, third sex/gender, this talk calls into question the phallocentric logic that obscures alternative sites and sources of bodily power and pleasure, emphasizing how hijras craft their own subject position.