Problematics of the Matrix of Gender and Sexuality: Men, Women and Transgenders

Abstract

Gender and sexuality are now too much talked about terms in our society and academics but they still have a labyrinth of complications and matrix of misunderstandings that confuse the identities of the concerned individuals— both from the individual side and from the public side. Gender and sexual identities, as critics of feminism and sexuality studies argue, are culturally constructed and are more fluid and cultures specific. Gender identities seem to remain universal as almost every society, in all over the world, with few exceptions, is patriarchal. In such typically patriarchal societies gender norms are more rigid in terms of their performativity among the common members of the set society and are more part of the public sphere, sexual identities are more tabooed and are part of more personal and protected spheres. Speaking of the formation of such identities and naturalization of the self through the processes in which an individual goes through it has been observed that all these identities are spatial and temporal and, in many cases, they are more based on the occasions in which a child unfortunately grows up—for example sexual abuse and exploitation. The article tries to explore the ways in which these gender and sexual identities are formed not only in terms of man and woman but also of transgenders.