When we demean someone or something, we call it third class, third grade, or third rate. A worst torture to an alleged criminal is classified as third degree.
The underdeveloped countries are grouped as third world. We also have a third-party software that is available for free, for lack of certain features though it is workable.
In a race or in a beauty contest, there is a winner who comes first and a runner up who comes second. No one cares about the third. Even a resourceful family accommodates only two children.
A third child is supposed to be unwanted. We claim a third-party insurance for a mishap or an accident which we commit to blame others for it, though not always but quite often. Third has been made synonymous to weird.
In this world, the rights of living beings have mostly been wronged, but the silver line is that wrongs are also identified as wrongs and are corrected by rightful measures on a parallel path. Thanks to human conscience. Identifying a problem is the first step towards its solution.
The sufferings should not just win us sympathy, they should also win us a war. We fight the devil by holy water or by fire. What water can streamline, fire cannot. Similarly, the finest steel has to go through the hottest fire. It is the circumstances that should determine our choice of response.
After hearing much about the abuse of aged parents, women and children, we are hearing about the other viz; the third gender. Indeed great, to hear from them. Better late than never.
Their sustained efforts in the recent past have earned them a welfare board to look into their concerns, besides earning them a meaningful attention in the society.
In an application form for job or education, we identify ourself as male or female or other. The ‘other’ is a polite way of getting identified as third gender.
In a broader context, there is rather a world-wide movement for LGBT rights where L refers to lesbian, G to gay, B to bisexual and T to transgender.
The people who have physical, emotional and sexual attractions or orientations towards the same gender are called Gay, though the specific term for such women is lesbian. Then there are people who have inclinations towards the same gender as well as the opposite gender. They are called bisexual.
Our local movement is, however, restricted to transgenders only. In most of the cultures and social orders, perfection is assumed for men and deficiency for women.
Therefore, it would always seem appropriate to categorize all transgenders with women and not with men. They would be groomed to act and behave like women irrespective of their inherent traits and tendencies.
Due to certain biological limitations the transgenders are either lesser males or lesser females in their reproductive traits. In rest of the traits, they are as good and as privileged as any human. Let us learn to classify them as either and not as other. Let us restore them their privileges without prejudice.
Equally to them should belong the educational institutions and the places of work, worship and welfare. A perfect biology is not a whole identity.
There are men and women who may be infertile irrespective of their age and general body health. They may not make a family but they still retain their identities as men and as women.
According to recent research published in journal of Human Reproduction Update, the sperm count among men is dropping and the decline is not slowing any way. Male identity is diluting in more than one way.
We find that the deep voices of men are drowning and their valor vanishing. Men are choosing to be fair, feeble and feminine. They are getting soft spoken and slimmer every day.
On the other hand, women are getting rough and robust, struggling hard to be strong not serene, to be bold not shy, to be he not she. The result is a mere exchange of identities which is neither wholesome nor original.
The girls tend to look like tom-boys and the boys are so chocolaty. Everyone is cherishing to live by choices which are beyond the scope of natural laws.
While transgender is about a natural calamity, being Lesbian or Gay or bisexual is about the personal choice of individuals. We have been transgressing the natural disposition every day. So all of us are trans in one way or the other. Much like our mobile phones, we are badly in need of a reset and restore.
When we are in search of best quality, we always mean the original taste, the original flavour, the original color, the original fruit, the original cloth of wool, cotton and leather.
A wise man was so fond of originality that he said, ‘It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.’ For the transgenders, I want to end with this wise quote of Shannon L. Alder, ‘Your dignity can be mocked, abused, compromised, toyed with, lowered and even badmouthed, but it can never be taken from you.
You have the power today to reset your boundaries, restore your image, start fresh with renewed values and rebuild what has happened to you in the past’.
Dr. Qudsia Gani, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, Govt. College for Women, Srinagar
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author.
The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in the article do not reflect the views of GK.