The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Dreams and nightmares of a transgender

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 02, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Dreams and nightmares of a transgender

D.Karthikeyan

"The younger generation is sensitive to gender issues"

Photo: G. Moorthy

Gender Bender: Kalki wants to become a role model for her community —

MADURAI: Gender categories have the strongest grip on contemporary culture. Transgender identities in fact transcend physical sex. In the 1990s, the postmodern understandings of sex, gender and sexuality permitted the creation of a distinctly ‘Transgender identity’ in which gender identity is marked by mind, rather than physical characteristics.

Transgenders today are beginning to emerge from the severe stigma to which they have been subject to in the past.

In order to eliminate discrimination, advocates attempt to raise consciousness about the nature of gender identity, the effects of prejudice and issues that gender identity raises in “other spaces” like bathroom use, identification cards and dress code.

Kalki is a transgender. She is a post graduate from Madurai Kamaraj University with an M.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication. She works as a Communications Facilitator in the Svaram Musical Instruments and Research Station in Auroville. She also runs an organisation called ‘Sahodari Foundation’ and a magazine, ‘Sahodari,’ which she claims is the first in the country for transgender where contributions are exclusively made by transgender.

A classical dancer, she spoke on Friday about what it was to be a transgender woman in her rigid voice with a lot of confidence and self-belief.

She believes that there is no necessary relationship between sex and gender, that individuals should have the right to determine their own sex and gender and the right to identify themselves as such in society.

When asked about her place of belonging, there was a lot of ambiguity, as she does not have a space, which she could call her own, or a space she feels she belongs to. But she believes that the younger generation is more sensitive to gender issues.

An avid reader of Sidney Sheldon novels, she said, “I like the characters especially women in the novels who undergo lot of trauma and finally make their way to prosperity.”

To create awareness

Her focus is on meeting the younger generation, particularly college students, to create awareness of transgender and make them sensitive about the squalid conditions in which they are forced to live.

“I have a lot of friends in the American College, both boys and girls. Initially, they were hesitant when I came here for the first time but now I have very good pals.”

Examples of sexual oppression, inequity and violence remain part of their everyday life experience.

Narrating her traumatic experiences, she talked about the mocking and hurling of abuses and humiliation she had to undergo in her school and collegiate life.

Kalki narrated her struggle over identity when the voter identity card issued to her termed her as male, which led to confusion and prevented her from going abroad.

A tale of woe

According to her, it is a suffering journey the transgender undergoes to find out the identity and once they find it as “fractured” the trauma and agony become worse.

She took a dig at the portrayal of transgender in popular commercial cinema where a vulgar depiction with a lot of mockery, slur and treatment of the individuals as objects is profusely done. She has an ambition to work with the United Nations as a Cultural Ambassador and will also try her hand at Hollywood films.

An ardent fan of Italian movies, she believes she can one day make her way to Italian film industry.

She has a complaint that her community does not have a good role model but feels that she can fill the void.

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