4. Adam and Eve, Hijra, LGBTQs, and the shake-up of gender identities

Abstract

Like race, gender seems to be an immutable element of our identity, while in both cases natural and socio-cultural determinants interact. ‘Adam and Eve, Hijra, LGBTQs, and the shake-up of gender identities’ explains that in Western societies, gender identities are being renegotiated. It exemplifies the fact that gender roles are subject to social norms, political power conditions, and economic exigencies. Inside (we) and outside (they) perceptions of identity are not always congruent. The present transformation of gender identities is not limited to women’s and men’s definitions of femininity and masculinity, but also involves recognition of LGBTQs who do not fit a two-valued logic of human sexuality. Modifications of established gender relations are likely to induce discrimination.