Love in a Different Climate : The Meaning of Being Gay in South Asia

What does it mean to be Muslim, Bengali or Tamil and to enjoy sex with men? How can a lesbian identity co-exist with Hindu, Islamic or Buddhist values? To what extent is 'gay culture' simply another neo-colonial import from a newly liberalised West? In this carefully researched and finely written work, Jeremy Seabrook deals with subjects rarely discussed in Western narratives about South Asia. Going beyond a straightforward contextualisation of the gatoei (lady-boys) in Thailand and the hijara (eunuchs) of India, he unravels the less familiar and more complex territory of homosexual and homoerotic encounters in general, and asks how valid Western models of sexual identity are in the South Asian context, and how effective they might be in dealing with global issues of sexual health, HIV awareness and gender politics. Much of the book is based on interviews which reveal the extent of the complexity at play: wives who traditionally vacate the marital bed to accommodate their husbands' friends; kotis--'passive' male sex partners of men many of whom will be married but see their relations with the kotis as fulfilling their destinies as males; the fundamentalist politicians who curse the Western influence of 'gay liberation' and continue to justify the punishment of life imprisonment for homosexuality; and the activist groups who are working towards a clearer and more helpful understanding of contemporary issues.

In this work, Jeremy Seabrook deals with subjects rarely discussed in narratives about India. Highlighting the lack of any easy comparison with Western models of gay culture, he unravels the less familiar and more complex territory of homosexual and homoerotic encounters in general, and asks how valid Western models of sexual identity are in the Indian context, and how effective they might be in dealing with global issues of sexual health, HIV awareness and gender politics.

General

ISBN		9781859848371
Fiction/Non-Fiction		Non-Fiction
Publisher		Verso Books
Pages		184
List Price		$25.00
Author		Seabrook, Jeremy
Publication Date		06/01/1999
Release Status		In Print
Format		Hardcover
Language		English
Measurements		Height: 8.5 Inches (US) Width: 6.5 Inches (US) Thickness: 0.75 Inches (US) Unit Weight: 0.9 Pounds (US)