Samjuktha Vijayan
Scientists agree that life on earth is an extraordinary thing. The fact that life chose this universe, this solar system and this particular planet to manifest is incredible. And the reality that certain atoms can arrange themselves in a way to form living things while a different arrangement creates non-living things is extraordinary. Funnily enough, as extraordinary as it is, life is also random. There is no discernible reason that I was born as a beautiful Indian transgender woman. In fact, I had no hand in it nor did I put any effort (well, being a transwoman some others would disagree with the “effort” part). If people think being born as a man or an Indian or a Hindu or an upper caste is their single biggest achievement to be proud of, then it is important to reconsider their lives and definition of the word achievement.
As Indians, we are very proud of our heritage, culture, vedas, puranas, ancient medical practices, our contribution to mathematics, yoga and the presence of civilizations that are probably more than 3000 years old. It is no wonder that when we talk about transgender people, we often allude to the references in our literature that has any suggestion of digression in gender conventions and are proud of being inclusive for centuries, for eg. the ardhanareeshwara form of lord shiva which encompasses both the male and female form in equal parts. In my opinion, such a rich inclusive history (or mythology) has neither resulted in our further understanding of gender nor has it improved social acceptance of transgender people.
After my transition from male to female in 2017, I decided to relocate to India. And anytime I met an Indian friend abroad, or friends here in India, they had a myriad of questions to ask and most of them would be frowned upon in the west. “When did you know you were a woman?” “Can you get married?” “Have you gone through operation?” etc. are mostly those that seem like harmless questions of curiosity but often come from a deep-rooted misunderstanding of what it means to be a man or a woman and also the strong belief in the narrative that transgender people are part of the “third gender” separate from men and women. There is acute lack of research in areas of gender identity and sexuality, often complicated by the local laws, social awkwardness and inadequate interdisciplinary discussions regarding mental, physical, biological and social implications.
Our understanding of sex or gender is simple and archaic. Interesting enough, not many question why we have two words “sex” and “gender” that probably denote the same thing. In tamil there is only one word for both — “paal”. Man and woman are the binary genders. Anything deviating from this given definition belongs to the third gender. A man is attracted to a woman and vice versa. We do not even want to talk about the possibility of men being attracted to men and women being attracted to women. Homosexuality has been identified in almost 450 species other than humans, but homophobia is present only among humans. And with Shiva in the ardhanareeshwara form or Vishnu in the Mohini form defining the transgender identity, we do not want to invest in understanding what it really means to be a transgender person.
Research conducted in the west has revealed interesting complications in the way we view sex and gender. In fact, most scientists agree that there are three distinct aspects — sex, gender identity and sexual orientation. When a child is born, doctors identify the “sex” of the child to be either male or female. Intersex people are individuals born with any of several variations in sex characteristics including chromosomes, gonads, sex hormones or genitals that do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies. So, your “sex” is what you are born with. Often gender identity is treated as related to what you think you are. People born as males but identifying as females are noted as transgender women. In the west, transgender women are categorised as women. People born as females but identifying as males are noted as transgender men and they are categorised as men. Western research also suggests that some people, independent of what they are born as, identify as neither male nor female. They are categorised under “gender fluid” or “non binary” or “gender queer”. (Matsuno, E., Budge, S.L. Non-binary/Genderqueer Identities: a Critical Review of the Literature. Curr Sex Health Rep 9, 116–120 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11930-017-0111-8).
The third aspect of sexual orientation is related to who you are attracted to. Men, who are born as men (“sex”) and/or identify as men (“gender”) can be sexually or romantically attracted to other men. These men are identified as homosexual men or gay men. The same goes for women who are identified as lesbians. There are people attracted to both the genders and are identified as bisexual. And those that are attracted to anybody (including transgender men and women) are identified as pansexual. Those who are not attracted to anybody are identified as Asexual.
One of the other important proposals include the spectrum model (https://www.usd.edu/diversity-and-inclusiveness/office-for-diversity/safe-zone-training/spectrum-m.odel) which more accurately represents the ways in which an individual’s sex, gender identity, gender expression and sexual and romantic orientations do not always exist as opposite endpoints. They can exist in any combination, and a person’s placement on one spectrum does not necessarily determine their placement on any of the others.
A more accurate and liberating model would require more dimensions than a linear scale, the possibility of existing on multiple points for each category and the ability to depict change over time. You might imagine an identity sphere that allows room for all expression without weighting any one expression as better or more important than another. In this sphere different experiences of sex, sexuality and gender can exist in ever-changing combinations and locations, thus making an even better representation of real diversity, though of course very difficult to depict graphically. Simply put, we are all on a spectrum. There is nothing called man and woman.
About the Author:
Ms. Samyuktha Vijayan is an artist, techie, and entrepreneur who also happens to be a transgender woman. She worked for Amazon in senior tech roles in India, Luxembourg and the US for almost 10 years. Currently she is a Principal technical program manager at Coupang, a South Korea based e-commerce startup. She works with ngos and placement organizations to help transgender women secure mainstream jobs at corporates.
