Joyita Mondal Summary

The success story of Joyita Mondal is an inspirational message of how one individual stood up against the intolerance and prejudice that plagues the transgender community, and our society today. Mondal was born a man in West Bengal, India. When describing her childhood, she explains how she preferred to play with dolls and dressing like a girl, yet these acts were against the social norms. As Chapter 5 of Transformations explains, Joyita was experiencing the gender typing of male, while her core gender identity was female. This is an example of the “underlying assumption” that gender and sex are congruent, or that they are generally expected to be by cultural norms (Crawford, 2012). As she grew older, Joyita found living the lie forced upon her was too much, and she moved to another city. There she began to dress openly as a woman. She worked as a hijra, performing ceremonial

Prior to starting this course I acknowledged this fact many times. I have decided to use these last few writing assignments as a method to close that gap. Additionally I felt like this article fell right in line with our readings for the week. For me, when it comes to learning about societal, emotional, interpersonal topics, I relate better when given a real life example. I can read the definition of gender typing, but to really grasp it, having a real life story behind it helps to better understand. This also facilitates in seeing how such things have shaped, and continue to shape, my own life. While I cannot fully understand the position of people like Joyita, I can relate in some ways. As a minority, growing up in a conservative city in Texas, I have felt the sting of prejudice as well as the societal push to assimilate. This has helped me to see the parallels between different types of oppression. Additionally, it has widened and strengthened my overall ideas of