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How trans people in small Indian towns bear the brunt of Bollywood stereotypes

 


More than anything about her childhood in a small hamlet on the edge of Telangana, Joopaka Chendur, a 34-year-old trans woman and sex worker, remembers the rain. Her village in the Adilabad district of Telangana suddenly came to life, fishermen pulled their carefully woven nets from the lake that surrounded the village, humming folk songs, and rings of fried rice called locally. chegodilu, would be generously shared by radiant neighbors.

That was until Chendurs’ boyfriend broke up with her on the first monsoon day in 2011.

To say he ruined the rains for me would be an understatement, she says. This was before Id ventured into sex work. What hurt was the fact that… he had reduced me to a caricature in a matter of minutes.

The breakup was caused by her boyfriend’s obsession with the trans character in the Bollywood film Murder 2 (2011). The character only hired prostitutes to kill them and throw their corpses into a well overflowing with ravenous mice.

I begged him to reconsider his decision, but he made his decision, Chendur said. The day he left me he said something that destroyed my idea of ​​love forever: Do you wanna end up like that slut killer in Murder 2 who became a eunuch because he couldn’t control his libido?

This incident left a deep mark on Chendur. She hadn’t even seen the movie until then but every time she heard someone talk about it she felt her skin crawl.

No portion of chegodilus helped her that day, or for several weeks after.

Bollywood has constantly caricatured trans lives and their struggles, reducing them to villainous sex workers, brothel owners and jaded lovers. And each time, a heterosexual actor has attempted the roles. Recently, Akshay Kumar played the role of a trans woman on the path to revenge in Laxmii (2020), while Vaani Kapoor is set to play a trans woman in the upcoming Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui (2021). These movies come at a time when even NCERT had to bow to pressure from transphobic groups on their decision to make the school curriculum more trans friendly.

While part of the audience still believes that the actors are free to play the role they want, these distorted representations of trans realities from a stereotypical and heteronormative gaze only reinforce the existing transphobia.

Ditilekha Sharma, queer transmasculine feminist researcher and activist, discusses how the stereotypical portrayal of trans realities erases the many nuances of trans identity. Our films build on existing stereotypes but also add to them, they said. When Akshay Kumar disguises himself as a woman in Laxmii, the assumption is that all trans people have dress in saris. For a very long time, Bobby Darlings’ portrayal of a transfeminine woman was seen as the only way trans people could exist. People did not understand that there could also be a trans man or a transmasculine person. Even his name has become an insult.


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Almost a thousand kilometers from the torrential rains in the village of Chendurs, in Raike Kalan, Punjab, lives Avtar, a 24-year-old trans man who prefers to be called only by his first name. He works as a tailor in one of the popular clothing retail stores in Bhatinda town. Avtar’s bad brush with Bollywood ended with the loss of his thumb.

[One day], I argued about Sadak (1991) with my colleagues who were drugged in substance, he said. The 1991 hit film starring Pooja Bhatt and Sanjay Dutt in the lead roles, also starred Marathi actor Sadashiv Amrapurkar as Maharani, a transgender brothel owner.

It was on TV in our store, and they kept laughing at the pimp and continuing to imitate him, Avtar says. I politely asked them to change the channel, but they wouldn’t listen. They told me to leave the store and come back after the movie was over. But it was December and it was freezing outside. Plus, we all slept in the store, says Avtar.

Things came to a head when Avtar grabbed the remote and turned off the system. I couldn’t take it. It was clear that they were laughing at me, and the exaggerated role played by a straight actor only fueled the fire.

Almost reflexively, one of the men pulled Avtar’s thumb under a working needle of a sewing machine and irreversibly injured his thumb. The pain was so unbearable, I thought I had lost my voice. I couldn’t scream. But the sight of so much blood luckily roused them from their drug-induced stupor and they rushed me to a local hospital.

It has been three years since that tragic incident and Avtar has no choice but to continue working at the same store. The owner took no action against the men and even claimed they were dealing with Avtar because they took him to hospital.

I don’t know what the working conditions are for other trans people like me in these heavily male dominated professions. The other day I learned that a trans bicycle repairer in Ludhiana was almost beaten to death by his owner for late delivery.

Judicial protection for such crimes against the trans community is almost non-existent. It was only recently that a boxtion before the Supreme Court sought to include sex crimes against transgender people within the scope of the law, which only recognizes crimes against men and women as valid. As a result of this petition, a 17-year-old trans girl was murdered in Tamil Nadu by his brother who did not approve of his sisters’ sex.

In addition, government records do not reflect the reality of trans violence on the ground. The National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) did not begin reporting crimes against trans people until after the adoption of the Transgender Protection Act in 2019.


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Sandra Nandeibam, a 23-year-old trans model from Imphal, Manipur, says Bollywood’s fetishistic portrayal of trans lives also permeates her romantic relationships.

People’s romantic interest in me is thus fueled by fantasy and lust; the urge to achieve something out of the ordinary because trans people are temporary accomplishments for them and a badge they can wear discreetly, ”says Nandeibam. “Because of our one-dimensional portrayal in Bollywood, people very often assume that trans people lead undignified lives and don’t give us the basic respect that all lives deserve.

As Nandeibam sees it, trans people are always stuck in a vicious cycle when real dating translates into real life. In her neighboring state of Assam, Arupa Phukan, a 39-year-old trans entrepreneur, shares a similar sentiment.

When we throw out phrases like movies reflect the times we live in ”we don’t necessarily take into account how they end up reflecting as well. and magnifying transphobia, they said. I still remember being shocked when I saw the 2004 movie masks, which shows a trans woman kissing one of the film’s main characters, and the disgust he feels when she realizes she is trans.

In masks, the character rinses his mouth when he realizes that he has misinterpreted the trans character; in fact, the price trans people have to pay when mistaken for cis gender is often fatal. In January, a 21-year-old trans woman in Chattisgarh was brutally murdered when the men around her found out that she was not a cis type.

Navya Singh, a trans model and actor from the small town of Katihar in Bihar, had auditioned for the trans lead role, which eventually went to Akshay Kumar, in Laxmii. So it’s not that trans people don’t audition for trans roles. Most of the time, I don’t fit into their stereotypical definition of what is really trans, ”Singh says. “They are waiting for someone more virile, less feminine, with a deep voice. Although, looking back, I’m only too happy that I didn’t land this role because it’s an affront to our community.

Singh recalls how nearly a decade ago, before entering modeling and acting, she faced inspired discrimination from her colleagues whenever she went to interviews to apply. to call center jobs – clearly inspired by Bollywood.

During one of these interviews, I heard two women say that I was there not to audition but to bless the play. One of them even told me that I should focus on work for my community, such as begging, sex work and magic. A lot of this comes from our films because we are portrayed in these narrow, stereotypical ways.

She explains that this is also why even kids are afraid of trans people, assuming they are evil and want to kidnap and castrate them.

The way communities – especially minorities – are represented in mass media has a profound impact on both how society views and treats them. It is indeed possible to make a dignified space for trans people in the art that we create and consume. Sharma notes how various folk art shows in India have always had this kind of space for trans expressions. The Bihu art of Assam or the folk art of Manipurs Sumanglila have spaces for transfeminine roles with dignity and respect. There is no caricature here. Trans people no longer spend their time in Bollywood and find integrity in our own trans-friendly folk spaces.

We are an empowered community, says Singh. And were all different, with a range of aspirations. It is high time that Bollywood and the world understood the same.

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