ASIAN 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Love Marriage, Bride Price, Ethnic Group
ASIAN 101 – GENDER ROLES
• Gender
o Male-Female Binary
▪ Strict
▪ What happens if you do not identify as male or female?
• California now has a third gender category (other)
o Communities in the world where individuals are non binary
genders
▪ India: Hijras
• Typically male assigned at birth or intersex
o Men not considered a real, authentic hijra unless
external genitalia are removed
• Dress in womens clothing
• Leave their families behind to join the hijra community
o Find a guru (teacher) who then becomes their
parent of sorts
o All classes, all religions
o Looks very different than other communities in
India that are very segregated (by caste, by
religion, by gender, etc.)
• Take on the female persona
o Sometimes realistic
o More often than not, a parody
o Do things women are not supposed to do, too
o Similar to Drag Queens, if they were in drag all of
their lives
• Hijras in mythology
o Long tradition (dating back to 8th Century BCE)
o Mahabharata (another part)
▪ Arjuna spends some time in heaven, where a
goddess likes him
▪ Arjuna refuses the goddesses advances
▪ Goddess is upset. Curses him to live as a
hijra
▪ Another god is like “hey he’s a hero, don’t
do this to him. Just live as a hijra for a year.”
▪ Arjuna becomes Brihannala (taught dance,
gave blessings at births, etc.)
o Shiva lingam
▪ Shiva gets mad bc Brahma created the
universe
