During one of our many discussions we met Mr Manohar Elavarthi, the director of Sangama.
Sangama is an organisation that works for the rights of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community. We were trying to understand the dissent of the LBGT Community.
So while we were talking about gender, Manohar told us about how society ascribes certain duties depending on whether you are a male or a female. And just when he said that I realized how true this was. Inspite of being open-minded my mother still very often told me things like,
"You are a girl so you cannot talk arrogantly. I will accept it because I am your mother but your in-laws would not" or "You are a girl, you need to behave in a certain way or do a certain thing".
So in the same way society has conditioned us to believe that when you are a "Man" you ought to be a "Male" and when you are a "Woman" you ought to be a "Female".
But one might be a "Man" but feel like a "Female" or be a "Woman" and feel like a "Male".
And this is what the transgenders undergo/feel.
This is when I decided that I wanted to understand the expression of gender.
And I decided my project.
Sharayu and I wanted to understand why is it that we differentiate "them" from "us".
Sharayu wanted to understand why we as a society treat the trasngenders the way we do. And what notion the transgenders have about society.
