Beyond emasculation : pleasure and power in the making of hijra in Bangladesh / Adnan Hossain.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hossain, Adnan, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gender-nonconforming people--Bangladesh.

Gender-nonconforming people.

Gender identity--Bangladesh.

Gender identity.

Sex role--Bangladesh.

Sex role.

Masculinity--Bangladesh.

Masculinity.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (236 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2021.

Summary:

This book is based on long term ethnographic research with hijras, the emblematic figure of South Asian sexual and gender difference in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It 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 book 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. Ethnographically rich and theoretically engaged, this book will cause a new, global re-examination of both hijras in particular and the wider range of 'male femininities' in general.

Contents:

Introduction: pleasure, power and masculinities

Kinship, community and hijragiri

Class-cultural politics and the making of hijras

Hijra erotic subjectivities: pleasure, practice and power

The paradox of emasculation

Practices and processes of gendering

Love and emotional intimacy: hijra entanglement with normative Bangla men

Contemporary transformation of hijra subjectivities

Conclusion: shifting meaning and the future of hijras.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 06 Aug 2021).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-009-08203-5

1-009-03791-9

OCLC:

1259298142