November 10, 2006

Hijras, or eunuchs are to be used by Indian tax authorities to collect debts. The hiras can be pretty scary, and claim the power to curse or bless. Pictures.
  • That was quite a ballbusting collection of links, Pleg. I'm off to gently caress my nether regions -- promise them that I love them and would never cut them off and suture the wound with burning oil.
  • Fascinating articles. While all of them told stories that suggested they had homosexual tendencies, few could explain the need to neuter themselves or adopt the hijra way of life. "We are the third gender," said Sita, my first hijra friend. "There is no room for homosexuals in this society. And none of us can envisage a life where we are forced to marry females and have children by them. So the only way out is to cut off our manhood and become hijras. This is the only community which will accept us and let us live our lives the way we want to. By not being heterosexuals, we are already damned. As a hijra, at least we are not the sole target of the derision and ridicule that society heaps on us. We can endure it as a community." Damn.
  • Some communities, however, do not consider the procedure complete until the boy has been made to sit on a grinding stone and pushed down until he bleeds from the anus. The drops of blood are taken to signify the first menstruation, and only then is the initiation complete. Yikes.
  • Wow, fascinating post here. I constantly think, “Why did God make enunchs?” A mother has 4 children, why is just one a eunuch? Of course, it is from God, but why does only one boy feel he wants to dress like a woman? What this is, I do not understand. No one can explain this question. Everyone has their own little theories. A eunuch has a male body, but the spirit is female. Why does this happen? No one becomes a eunuch by choice, meaning no one says, “I want to be a eunuch.” But there is no other way…you cannot say that a eunuch is a homosexual. We are the third sex.
  • Uniquely scary tax collectors indeed. A mature transsexual voluntarily lopping off the dangly bits is one thing but the forcible castration of children is unspeakably barbaric.
  • Wow. It's fascinating that their society, unlike ours, has a place for homosexuality, even if they do not accept them as they are.
  • has a place for homosexuality It strikes me as the very opposite... they know they can't have a 'normal', married and child-rearing life given their sexual orientation, so they endure castration and end up in a ghetto? Scary.
  • Well, it is *a place*, just not a very nice place.
  • Not a nice place. Nor is the place the Untouchables inhabit.
  • Endlessly fascinating, life is.
  • An interesting group of people at which to direct the attention of those who think that homosexuality is environmental. Possibly these men weren't raised to want this life.