Beyond Emasculation
Pleasure and Power in the Making of hijra in Bangladesh

Studies hijras in Bangladesh, challenging the dominant representation of hijra as either a third sex or a form of transgender.

Adnan Hossain (Author)

9781316517048, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 3 February 2022

244 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2 cm, 0.46 kg

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.

Glossary
Introduction: pleasure, power and masculinities
1. Kinship, community and hijragiri
2. Class-cultural politics and the making of the hijras
3. Hijra erotic subjectivities: pleasure, practice and power
4. The paradox of emasculation
5. Practices and processes of gendering
6. Love and emotional intimacy: hijra entanglement with normative Bangla men
7. Contemporary transformation of hijra subjectivities
Conclusion: shifting meaning and the future of the hijras
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Anthropology [JHM], Sociology [JHB], Sociology & anthropology [JH], Gender studies, gender groups [JFSJ], Social interaction [JFFP], Feminism & feminist theory [JFFK], Cultural studies [JFC]