Subjugated Sexuality V/S Emancipated Self In A. Revathi’s The Truth About Me: A Hijra Life Story

Abstract

This paper gives a brief analysis of the effects of sexual inequality and the miserable state of the hijra community in India. This autobiography demonstrates how hijras are denied access to all the amenities that a typical citizen of a nation should have.The author's goal in writing this autobiography was to demonstrate that people exist and that people have opinions, thoughts, sentiments, and emotions on every facet of society.A person’s gender and sexual orientation are frequently intertwined, and it is common to take these two distinct identities for granted. One is expected to act and behave like a ‘man’ according to whatever socially constructed definition of a man exists, if they are born with a male reproductive organ. If a person is born with a female reproductive organ, they must aspire to the feminine ideals that society and culture have established. Any departure from the dichotomy of male/female is met with scepticism on the one hand and derision or contempt on the other. To recognise and respect such lives, it is vital to create identities that lie outside of the man/woman spectrum. Since their sexuality and gender performances do not fit the pre-existing sex-gender binary, hijras continue to be a mystery to the majority of people. This paper seeks to illuminate the paradoxical identity of the hijra community and examines how gendered behaviours and outward appearances are important to hijars in forging their identities in order to shed insight on their sexuality and gender identifications.