Abstract
The politics of gender, class, and sexuality has put women’s sexual diversity issues at the bottom of LGBT activism in Bangladesh. Focusing on women’s same-sex desires, this chapter specifically looks at a group of female sex workers who practice heterosexuality as labour and homosexuality as personal sexual desire. Choosing ‘lesbian’ as a strategic label to make space within LGBT discourse and activism, this group of women challenges the politics of sexual identity, labelling, and representation. These women’s ‘personal is/and political’ practices mark the emergence of ‘new sexualities’ in Bangladesh, and their almost invisible presence in an otherwise educated middle-class fabric of sexuality rights activism questions our middle-class framed understanding of heteronormativity, womanhood, sexualities, and rights discourses.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
All sex workers (in this research) are migrant women, who maintain one household in Dhaka and support parental family back in the villages. The shaping of one’s public image has to be done at two levels: covering up professional identity and sexual identity. Professional identity is also part of personal identity as a woman, who needs to carefully establish an image of a respectable working woman staying away from home village/family but whose economic contribution is crucial for others too.
- 2.
A workshop entitled ‘Sexual Diversity and Coalition Building’ among the Bangladeshi LGBT community was held February 6–7, 2009, in Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh, with financial support from the Norwegian LGBT Association (LLH Norway). The topic of ‘Gay Women: Issues and Concerns—Perspectives from Bangladesh OR Bangladesh in Perspective? Perspective of Bangladesh’ (where this Shomopremi group represented the only ‘gay women’s’ group) was addressed.
References
Akhtar, S., and M. Bhowmik, eds. 1998. Janana Mahfil. Calcutta: Stree.
Amin, N. 1996. The World of Muslim Women in Colonial Bengal, 1876–1939. New York: Brill Academic Pub.
Azim, F. 2010. The New 21st Century Women. In Mapping Women’s Empowerment: Experiences from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, ed. F. Azim and M. Sultan, 261–278. Dhaka: BDI and UPL.
Bacchetta, P. 2007. Rescaling Transnational ‘Queerdom’: Lesbian and ‘Lesbian’ Identity Positionalities in Delhi in the 1980s’. In Sexualities: Issues in Contemporary Indian Feminism, ed. N. Menon. Delhi: Kali for Women.
Begum, M., and A. Haq. 2001. Ami Naree: Tinshw bochhor-er bangali nareer itihash. Dhaka: UPL.
Biswas, R. 2007. The Lesbian Standpoint. In The Phobic and the Erotic: The Politics of Sexualities in Contemporary India, ed. S. Bose and B. Bhattacharyya, 263–290. Oxford: Seagull Books.
Blanchet, T. 1996. Lost Innocence, Stolen Childhoods. Dhaka: UPL.
Chatterjee, P. 1989. Colonialism, Nationalism and Colonized Women: The Context in India. American Ethnologist 16 (4): 622–633.
———. 1993. The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Post-colonial Histories. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Daya, Shari. 2009. Embodying Modernity: Reading Narratives of Indian Women’s Sexual Autonomy and Violation. Gender, Place & Culture 16 (1): 97–110.
Dhawan, N.B. 2010. The Married ‘New Indian Woman’: Hegemonic Aspirations in New Middle Class Politics? South Asian Review of Sociology 41 (3): 45–60.
Eves, A. 2004. Queer Theory, Butch/Femme Identities and Lesbian Space. Sexualities 7 (4): 480–496.
Haq, S. 2006. Sex-Workers’ Struggles in Bangladesh: Learning for the Women’s Movement. In ed. Cornwall and Jolly. IDS Bulletin: Sexuality Matters, 37 (5): 134–137.
Jackson, S. 2011. Heterosexual Hierarchies: A Commentary on Class and Sexuality. Sexualities 14 (1): 12–20.
John, M., and J. Nair, eds. 1998. A Question of Silence: The Sexual Economies of Modern India. Delhi: Kali for Women.
Karim, Shuchi. 2004. Exploring the Household Compositions of Female Sex-workers in Brothels: Daulatdia, A Case Study. BRAC University Journal I (1): 33–48.
———. 2012. Living Sexualities: Non Heterosexual Women and Sexuality in Urban Middle Class Bangladesh. In Gender, Sexuality and Muslim Countries, ed. Helic and Hoodfar. London: Zed Books.
———. 2014. Erotic Desires and Practises in Cyberspace: ‘Virtual Realities’ of the Non-heterosexual Middle Class in Bangladesh. Gender, Technology and Development 18 (1): 53–76.
Lau, L.E.J. 2006. The New Indian Woman: Who Is She, and What Is ‘New’ About Her? Women’s Studies International Forum 29: 159–171.
———. 2010. Literary Representations of the ‘New Indian Woman’: The Single, Working, Urban, Middle Class Indian Woman Seeking Personal Autonomy. Journal of South Asian Development 5 (2): 271–292.
Malone, K., and R. Cleary. 2002. (De)Sexing the Family: Theorizing the Social Science of Lesbian Families. Feminist Theory 3 (3): 271–293.
Menon, N., ed. 2007. Sexualities: Issues in Indian Feminism. Delhi: Zed Books.
Mohsin, A. 2010. Coming Out of the Private: Women Forging Voices in Bangladesh. In Mapping Women’s Empowerment: Experiences from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, ed. F. Azim and M. Sultan, 11–38. Dhaka: BDI and UPL.
Nahar, S. 2005. Bibi theke Begum: Bangali Musalman Nareer kromobibortoner Itihash. Dhaka: Ankur Publishers.
Sarkar, S., and T. Sarkar. 2008. Women and Social Reform in Modern India: A Reader. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Seidman, S. 2011. Class Matters… But How Much? Class, Nation and Queer Life. Sexualities 14 (1): 36–41.
Sharma, J. 2009. Reflections on the Construction of Heteronormativity. Development 52 (1): 52–55.
Tahmina, Q.A., and S. Moral. 2004. Sex Workers in Bangladesh: Livelihood: At What Price? Dhaka: SEHD.
Talukdar, J., and A. Linders. 2013. Gender, Class Aspirations, and Emerging Fields of Body Work in Urban India. Qualitative Sociology 36 (1): 101–123.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Karim, S. (2018). Heterosexual Profession, Lesbian Practices: How Sex Workers’ Sexuality Right Positions Through Intersection of Sexuality, Gender, and Class Within the Hierarchy of LGBT Activism in Bangladesh. In: Hussein, N. (eds) Rethinking New Womanhood. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67900-6_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67900-6_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-67899-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-67900-6
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)