you are being so much macho - a story told by Harish Iyer

Sharing a status update by Harish Iyer on facebook...

("Hijra" is the term for "transgenders" in Hindi)
("BAHUT MARDH BANTA HAI" - Hindi - "you are being so much macho")

Image credit: Indiamike

"A blue collored worker in the train bullied a hijra while a couple of others were laughing at his "jokes". i watched like a mute spectator waiting for once for someone to raise a voice of dissent. none did. most of them who were offended, turned to the hijra with a sympathetic eye. i waited for the crowd to respond, and the crowd waited for the crowd to respond. All this while, the hijra who was hanging by the footboard symbolically, (half of hir body hanging in the sky, half on the train) kept a poker face oblivious to the jibes directed at hir. I waited for another couple of stations like a mute fucker in a colony of impotent spectators. The jibes intensified, the look on the hijra's face got even more intense. I always wanted people to fight for their own rights, I waited for a response as another couple of stations went by. Then the nice blue collared man went up to the hijra and started prodding her. Too close for comfort, the hijra person pushed hirself to the corner of the footboard to give the Lord of Fuckland more space. Again, kind hearted and sensitive people watched with a sympathetic eye. I waited for them to respond, they waited for someone to respond. So, in effect no one responded, as a couple of more stations passed by. Time had kind of stopped to watch the man stoop to new lows of disgrace. It was vadala road, I had just two more stations to alight. I decided to speak up. I gathered all my pent up anger, and screamed "BAHUT MARDH BANTA HAI. What the fuck did the hijra do to you, why are you troubling the hijra". There was pin drop silence in the otherwise chaotic train. The Hijra was still poker faced, acted as if she didnt hear a single word of support. The asshole charged at me with rage, and his friends held on to him to prevent him from doing any drama. He went " what the hell is your problem you homo". At this point, the silent empathizers spoke up, not for me but also for the hijra "Dude, behave yourself else you will be thrown on the tracks with your two friends, dare you fucking speak to THEM like that. APOLOGIZE. APOLOGIZE NOW." In the meantime, the hijra alighted the train, silently, oblivious to all that was happening around her, not a word of thanks, not a word of hatered, not a pinch of any emotion on her poker face. The asshole was silent now, guess he was overwhelmed by the crowd that joined as the chorus against him. He rendered an apology to me. "sorry boss, said what i said in anger". In the meantime, there were some phone cameras that were out clicking pictures. (Who doesn't like some good drama, yeah?). In the meantime, it was time for me to alight too, guess the asshole went further to VT.
I alighted, and my first reaction at Cotton Green station was of anger at the hijra, "why cant they fight for their rights", i thought. But soon, it changed to that of empathy and evaluation - DO WE REALLY GIVE HIJRAS A VOICE?"

As told by Harish Iyer............touching, right? I wish I had half the courage he showed to respond in such situations!!!

A message from Transgender community - Video by Ryan Mendonca

 

Trans-genders are an extremely marginalized community all over world, especially in India. They are born that way (most of them) and society considers it to be their fault. We should better blame "god" for making them "in-between". They are considered a "nuisance" by the society and largely abused. The men who verbally abuse them during the day will sexually abuse them at night. Whatever, they surely can grab attention, whenever a transgender steps into a public space, people turn their heads and stare. Stare and laugh are part of their lives. They don't care and they embrace their unusual self wholeheartedly. They should be praised instead of showering abuse on them. In this video, Ryan Mendonca beautifully utilizes their attention grabbing ability to good use, to convey a socially relevant message, a simple message of wearing seat belt and abiding to traffic rules. Kudos, Ryan!!

 

The message is in Hindi, but subtitles are hard-coded in English.

Androgynous - way to being genderfluid

Androgynous look is becoming vogue, many celebrities endorsing the androgynous look like Adam Lambert, Boy George, the late pop icon Michael Jackson to name a few and  models like Andrej Pejic, Tilda Swinton are considered hot properties in both male and female modelling ramp shows. So, is it bad to be gender fluid? One day you dress like a man and the next day you go out in your smashing and flamboyant female avatar. Well, you need to endure the heavy frowning of our society, you need to think beyond your thick social conditioning to enjoy such a drag and quite sure that those will be labelled as "freak shows". Photographer Leland Bobbe, created some wonderful photographs in his series " Half-Drag" he dismantles the social conditioning and explores the gender neutral stance to a new level. 

As mentioned in his website "His  series, Half-Drag offers a unique perspective on the drag queens behind the make up, while providing provocative social commentary on gender identity, normative ideas about gender roles, and the traditional male/ female paradigm". "Not surprisingly, Half-Drag has gone viral, appearing on over thousands of blogs, websites and online magazines in over 30 countries including Vogue Italia, Huffington Post, ABC News, The Sundance Channel, AOL and MSN".

Enjoy/Frown/Wow upon, but not at all easy to try this in public spaces.

 

 

 

Image credits: Google, Tumblr