Brunch bookmarks: How to become gender sensitive

These five books will help understand the scope of genders and their intersections

Loving Women: Being Lesbian in Unprivileged India

By Maya Sharma

This classic work is a collection of oral narratives about women who choose to live with other women in non-urban, non-privileged India. The first published title to have the word ‘lesbian’ on its cover, this is a must-read for all those who think lesbianism is a ‘Western’ or ‘urban’ or ‘privileged’ construct.

Talking of Muskaan

By Himanjali Sankar

How hard it can be to identify as queer as a teenage girl and not want to render that fact about oneself invisible; no book explores this possibility better than Sankar’s tale with young characters that one falls in love with.

By A Revathi

A set of oral narratives about Aravanis (as Hijras are called south of the Vindhyas) recorded by transgender activist A. Revathi, this little gem of a book gives the reader a glimpse of the challenges the community faces in trying to live a life of dignity in India.

Amelia Abraham: Queer Intentions: A (Personal) Journey through LGBTQ+ Culture

By Amelia Abraham

A blurb inside this describes it as ‘an insightful and intersectional journey’ and they got it spot on. The author melds her journalistic instinct with a personal investment in the subject to write a witty and profound book that is possibly the most current account of LGBTQ+ culture in our times.

Trans Power: Own your Gender

By Juno Roche

The author reclaims the power of the word and identity, ‘Trans’; yes, you heard me right, just ‘trans’, not ‘trans-man’ or ‘trans-woman’. Roche rejects gender binaries with a finality that put a foolish smile on my face by the time I was done reading the book. This book really does give us a glimpse of the future of gender.

Author bio: Arpita Das is the founder of Yoda Press, an independent publishing house which has produced award-winning titles on sexuality, dissent, cities, and new perspectives on history

From HT Brunch, November 3, 2019

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