Topics are getting a little repetitive, so I thought I'd add a twist, for those interested in world-wide Ladyboys....
India's Ladyboys are called "hijra", often incorrectly called eunuchs. Hijra live in households with a "guru" and (in my view) slaves, called "chelas". A guru might have 5-10 chelas. The guru tells the chelas what to do including prostitution, begging, and when to perform at the mandatory weddings and births of male children.
At weddings and births they sing and dance in sexual ways, and are a bit lurid (like showing their parts, looking at the kids genitals, crude jokes). To shun them away is considered bad luck and they demand more money than you want to give (now that's familiar!).
They adore The Mother Goddess Mata, and her son, Shiva, and another deity, Arvuna, and Krishna, all whom have complex androgynous backdrops.
Estimates are from 50K to 1.5M hijra in India (yes, I know, stupid range). In a 1B population, that is 1% or so, and in Australia, that would be near 10%! (maybe they should all move to Oz-land!) They are a caste unto themselves and often shunned from their families and society in general. There are lots of rumors of hijra forcibly "taking" male children to joing them, although that seems to be aging.
Hijra dress and act like women, but in my opinion, most are not too attractive. They live in abject poverty most of the time. However, since 2000 there have been about 3 or more elected to mayoral positions in villages and there's a few sprouting salons with hijra.
In my humble opinion, Thailands Ladyboys still have it way better, with less poverty, acceptance in families, better jobs, no unusual religious practices, and thanks to genetics, better looking. The life of a hijra does not seem like a happy one unfortunately.
All that being said, there are some pictures of totally beautiful hijra around, so I shouldn't generalize too, too much.
India's Ladyboys are called "hijra", often incorrectly called eunuchs. Hijra live in households with a "guru" and (in my view) slaves, called "chelas". A guru might have 5-10 chelas. The guru tells the chelas what to do including prostitution, begging, and when to perform at the mandatory weddings and births of male children.
At weddings and births they sing and dance in sexual ways, and are a bit lurid (like showing their parts, looking at the kids genitals, crude jokes). To shun them away is considered bad luck and they demand more money than you want to give (now that's familiar!).
They adore The Mother Goddess Mata, and her son, Shiva, and another deity, Arvuna, and Krishna, all whom have complex androgynous backdrops.
Estimates are from 50K to 1.5M hijra in India (yes, I know, stupid range). In a 1B population, that is 1% or so, and in Australia, that would be near 10%! (maybe they should all move to Oz-land!) They are a caste unto themselves and often shunned from their families and society in general. There are lots of rumors of hijra forcibly "taking" male children to joing them, although that seems to be aging.
Hijra dress and act like women, but in my opinion, most are not too attractive. They live in abject poverty most of the time. However, since 2000 there have been about 3 or more elected to mayoral positions in villages and there's a few sprouting salons with hijra.
In my humble opinion, Thailands Ladyboys still have it way better, with less poverty, acceptance in families, better jobs, no unusual religious practices, and thanks to genetics, better looking. The life of a hijra does not seem like a happy one unfortunately.
All that being said, there are some pictures of totally beautiful hijra around, so I shouldn't generalize too, too much.
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