Gender Performance in Hijras: Paradoxical Identity of Indian Transgenders in the Book by A. Revathi “The Truth About Me: A Hijra Life Story”

The sexuality of a person is often associated to gender and both these varying identities are expected to be synonymous. If one is born with a male reproductive organ, the individual is expected to talk, walk and live like a “man”, whatever the definition of a man society has predetermined. If one is born with a female reproductive organ, the individual is to meet the feminine standards set out by the social and cultural institutions. Any deviance from the male/female binary is perceived with skepticism on the one hand and scorn/contempt on the other. The need to establish identities that lay in between the man/woman spectrum is necessary to acknowledge and accept such lives. Hijras are a community that still remain a puzzle to the majority, with their sexuality and gender performances not meeting the established dichotomy of sex and gender. This paper attempts to draw out the paradoxical identity of the hijra community through A.Revathi’s autobiography The truth About Me : A Hijra Life Story. The paper aims to throw light on sexuality and gender identifications of hijras by analyzing  how appearance and gendered performances are significant to hijars in establishing their identities.