The X factors of sex: hijras, Victorian law, and digital porn in postcolonial India

Abstract

This essay expands and transposes Kimberlé Crenshaw Williams’ notion of ‘intersectionality’ in the geographical and historical context of contemporary India. The article offers the theoretical heuristic of ‘intersex/tional’ identity to re-think the erotic lives of hijras in India following the Supreme Court of India's legal recognition of the so-called third gender. I begin by establishing a rationale for doing so, and then briefly move into a history of the pathologization of hijras as non-confirming genders from British colonial times to now. Following this introduction, I examine the limited representation of hijras in digital pornography, expanding my scope to the queer purview of Digital India. The questions that I ask and propose to answer are as follows: in what ways are digital articulations of hijras as erotic figures complicated through technology; and are these new modes of subjectivity that challenge hegemonic pathology of non-gender-conforming subjects?.