Swatiroy’s Weblog

What Gender?

S. Santhi, a former athlete tried attempting suicide last year.  The
silver medal that she bagged in the 800-metre race at the Asian Games
was stripped from her, after she failed a gender test. ‘Santhi wept
like a woman’ was the headline of a DNA news report (Dec. 18, 2006)
carrying this story. Its lead said, “S Santhi ran like a man to bag
the silver medal in the 800 metres race for women at Doha last Sunday.
This Monday, the athlete wept like a woman after receiving the Rs 15
lakh reward from Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.”

As per an Indian Express Report(Dec.19, 2006) this is not the first
time that an Indian athlete has been involved in a gender controversy
with Anusuya Bai and Nani Radha having put through such  tests in the
1970s and Solamathi later.

Like these, many other reports came on this issue, ripping  Santhi’s
life apart and made her an issue, rather than looking at the question
of how there is no space in the mainstream for someone who does not
fall in the ‘male’ or the ‘female’ category.

It is not just sports, but everywhere. Most common example is that of
the application or other forms that we fill in; just two genders
exist. They might however ask for ones’ cast specifics.
There is nothing we can do formally if we are outside any one of these
gender categories.

There is a scene in the Movie Chakh De India were the girls of a
hockey team beat up men who misbehave with them. After that, Shahrukh
Khan goes up to one of the men, holds him by the neck and says
something to the effect of the girls not being Chakkas (a derogatory
Hindi word for Hijras) in their defense. Very few of the mainstream
Bollywood movies, like Tamanna by Puja Bhatt, have shown Hijras as
normal people; mostly they potray comic roles. They are used for the
loud song and dance scene but that is it.

There are two categories, physically and psychologically, that we are
put into, as soon as we are born.

The article ‘Sexuality and its pertinence’ elaborates on ‘human
sexuality’ and what defines it.

“Human sexuality has to do with emotions, ideas and choices, with
regard to intimate and bodily relationships, with other men and women,
and one’s self. These relationships are not merely personal, but
possess particular social forms and identities. The realm of sexuality
is thus not entirely given over to bodily sensations and drives – and
is mediated by notions of appropriate pleasure, social worth, trust
and loyalty. These notions differ from place to place, culture to
culture and have changed over time. If this were not so, we would not
be able to account for the multiplicity of sexual practices that
actually exist; nor would we be able to understand why practices
celebrated in one era are derided in another. …”

As the article mentioned there are some ways in which certain sexual
norms are normalised while others are not only not accepted but also
are criminalized. In India, it is the Article 377 drafted in 1860
under British rule criminalizes homosexuality.
An excerpt from India Today, March 14(2008), on this Article:
Legal angle
* What Section 377 of IPC says: Whoever voluntarily has carnal
intercourse     against the order of nature, with any man, woman or
animal, shall be punishable with imprisonment for life or with
imprisonment of either description for a term, which may extend to 10
years and shall also be liable to fine.
* History: Section 377 was drafted in 1860 by Lord Macaulay. Britain
repealed it in 1967 by decriminalising homosexuality in England.
* India’s role: Has rejected countless pleas to repeal Section 377
citing reasons of “public morality”.
* Injustices: Besides criminalising the lives of sexual minorities,
the law has neither any provision for same-sex marriage nor for
adoption of children. They are the most affected with loss of
property, education and jobs.

When even biological differences in the human body that do not fall
under male and female gender norms are not accepted by the society,
situations become further complex if we do not feel as we are supposed
to feel with the structure or framework of the body that we are born
with, which then determines our course of life.