Reframing Transgender: The Marginalised Voice Echoed in I am Vidya: A Transgender`s Journey

Abstract

In every society an individuals view about his or her gender depends on their personal sense of being a woman or a man. When the internal gender identity does not go with it the external manifestation of gender allocated to them biologically, gender disorder begins. It is at this juncture that the third genders become deviants in the society. The existence of the third gender is as natural as the existence of the binary groups of gender. But in a bipolar society like India only two genders, male and female are considered as normal genders and anything other than these two are seen as abnormal or subhuman. The main problem of the third gender community arises not at the time they identify their real gender but when their identity is not accepted by others. The autobiographical work I am Vidya: A Transgenders Journey by Living Smiling Vidya depicts the trauma that a transgender undergoes. The work transends the trauma stage through resistance and resilience.