Queering Premodern Asia is a limited series and the 5th season of the Nuances podcast about Our Asian Stories. Each episode explores different aspects of sexual diversity in premodern Asia with commentary from guest scholars. Episodes are divided into a narrative portion, and a discussion with a guest co-host from the queer Asian community.
Ep. 3: Fifty Shades of Gender
- Introduction & content warnings
- Third Gender as spiritual leaders/ people with special powers
- Asog Babaylans (Philippines)
- Manangbali (Malaysian Borneo)
- Hijras (South Asia)
- Bissu (South Sulawesi, Indonesia)
- Bayasa (Central Sulawesi, Indonesia)
- RatoNale/Seaworm Priest (West Sumba, Indonesia)
- Balian and Basir (Kalimantan, Indonesia)
- Sexuality as fluid
- Chigo (Japan)
- Beyond the Western model
- Gay & Lesbian non-equivalence
- Baklâ (Philippines)
- Heterosexuals and Lesbians in Thailand vs. the West
- Kathoey (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia)
- Gender ambiguity in premodern Muslim societies
- 5 genders of the Bugis culture (Indonesia)
- Intersex
- Outro
- Discussion with TONIE
Featured Song: More Than My Body by TONIE
Book mentioned by TONIE:
Heyam, Kit (2022). Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender. Seal Press.
References:
Schmidt-Hori, Sachi (2021). Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives. University of Hawaii Press.
Brewer, Carolyn (1999). “Baylan, Asog, Transvestism, and Sodomy: Gender, Sexuality and the Sacred in Early Colonial Philippines”. Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context (2). Archived from the original on February 12, 2020.
Scott, William Henry (1994). Barangay: Sixteenth-century Philippine Culture and Society. University of Hawaii Press.
Iyer, Nalini (2009). “Hijra”. Encyclopedia of Gender and Society, Volume 1. SAGE. p. 421. ISBN 9781412909167.
Shroff, Sara (2020). “Operationalizing the “New” Pakistani Trans Gender Citizen”. In Roy, Ahonaa (ed.). Gender, Sexuality, Decolonization: South Asia in the World Perspective. Taylor & Francis.
Singh, Himanshi; Kumar, Pradeep (2020). “Hijra: An Understanding”, Journal of Psychosocial Research, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp.79-89.
Kem Vichet (14 October 2022). “Common misconceptions and the overlap between anti-gender and anti-gay rights sentiment in Cambodia”
Jackson, Peter A (1989). Male Homosexuality in Thailand; An Interpretation of Contemporary Thai Sources. Elmhurst NY: Global Academic Publishers.
Davies, Sharyn Graham (2010). Gender Diversity in Indonesia: Sexuality, Islam, and queer selves. Routledge. pp. 120–137.
Andaya, Leonard Y (2018). “The Bissu: Study of a Third Gender in Indonesia.” Gender in Focus: Identities, Codes, Stereotypes and Politics, edited by Andreea Zamfira et al., 1st ed., Verlag Barbara Budrich, 2018, pp. 64–87. JSTOR. Accessed 24 June 2024.
Alipour, Mehrdad. (2016). Islamic shari’a law, neotraditionalist Muslim scholars and transgender sex-reassignment surgery: A case study of Ayatollah Khomeini’s and Sheikh al-Tantawi’s fatwas. International Journal of Transgenderism, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 91–103.
Rhude, Kristofer (2018). The Third Gender and Hijras: Hinduism Case Study – Gender. Edited by Moore, Diane L. Harvard Divinity School. Accessed 29 June 2024.
Almarri, Saqer. “Identities of a Single Root: The Triad of the Khuntha, Mukhannath, and Khanith”. Women & Language Vol. 41, No. 1, pp. 97-109. Accessed 29 June 2024.
Additional sources:
Toms: The complex world of female love in Thailand
Guest scholar:
- Sachi Schmidt-Hori, professor of Japanese literature & culture at Dartmouth College.
- Wu CunCun, professor of Chinese literature at the University of Hong Kong.
Guest co-host bio:
TONIE is doing their very best to make you cry, in all the best ways. The LA-native writes and produces each synth-pop track from the comfort of their skylit home studio in Brooklyn, NY — a perfect backdrop for the emotional vulnerability that colors their lyrics. Proudly Vietnamese American, nonbinary, and themselves!
Tonie can be reached on Instagram & TikTok and their website Itstonie.com
Let’s connect!
You can also follow us on all social media: @nuancespod
Episode transcript: COMING SOON
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