Hijra heaven: The title of Miss Gay Universe, a pageant that’s quite a drag, has been won by Miss Gay India Lidia Zaray (thanks, ‘Me’). India’s hijra community always provides stiff competition, and this year it duct-taped the traditional cross-dressing powers into submission.
And so India turns out another beauty, emphasis on the queen. If you overlook the Adam’s apples, these ladies can sashay. But Zaray is brown, not Snow White. If Zaray had assistants, they’d be called Hairy, Lazy, Cheap, Nerdy, Pious, Chubby and Doc. And their parents would want them all to be just like Doc.
For future reference (?), here’s how international queens gussy up:
Shaving is only the beginning of the female process, which also involves applying duct tape to produce cleavage and many layers of pantyhose for leg tone and shape. Pads, made of foam or rubber, are added to instantly create the illusion of hips and buttocks. Other tricks involve using necklaces or feather boas to elongate the neck and hide the Adam’s apple, high heels for longer legs – and then there’s makeup. Foundation, powder and blush are used to contour the masculine shape of the face. “There’s a reason why we call it painting our face,” a drag queen named Jamie says.
Giuliani would’ve been proud.
I wonder how much that duct tape is gonna hurt when it’s taken off..
Your Welcome 🙂 – It was a funny story I had to share!
I thought ‘Hijra’ meant eunuch though..
Let’s educate ourselves, a drag queen is not the same as a transsexual ( hijra, eunuch ), the first impersonates a female by exaggerating its characteristics and the latter has undergone a sex change and is therefore legally a woman. Please, let’s not exoticize and dehumanize the accomplishments of Zaray. As a racial minority we’re very familiar with these problems and we not should not repeat these mistakes on our sexual minorities. What is your intention in juxtaposing Zaray’s picture (?) with Snow White’s evil queen???
AFAIK, many hijras are cross-dressers or are saving up for transgender ops. As you point out, the pageant is open to those who are male or pre-op, not post-op.
‘Mirror, mirror, on the wall / Who’s the fairest of them all?’
sense of humor anyone?
Well, I am just going by the article which says “The contest features transsexuals…”, and if the main point of the post is to talk about Zaray who by taking part in this contest is assumed a transsexual, referencing a drag queen’s transformation does seems a bit inappropriate. Comparing monkeys to zebras…
By no means do I intend to communicate that this was intentional by Manish, I know it wasn’t. All I am saying is that I have no sense of humor left when it comes to LGBT issues, I have been made fun of and stereotyped enough times as a racial and sexual minority. I hope one day a hijra/gay/lesbian accomplishment can be reported without sensationalism and disrespect, the day our stories are not classified under ‘Humor’ perhaps…
By no means do I intend to communicate that this was intentional by Manish, I know it wasn’t. All I am saying is that I have no sense of humor left when it comes to LGBT issues, I have been made fun of and stereotyped enough times as a racial and sexual minority. I hope one day a hijra/gay/lesbian accomplishment can be reported without sensationalism and disrespect, the day our stories are not classified under ‘Humor’ perhaps…
sure. you might get sensitivity, but you won’t get friendships. friendships are about making fun of each other.
not that being gay in where-ever-you-live doesn’t suck. but life is not about an infinity of choices, it is about a realistic palette of options. i have seen LGBTA friends seal themselves off in their own cultural ghettos in the past few years. i could understand this if they lived in alabama, but this usually happens to people who move to san francisco or new york. my gay activist friends always tell me that ‘people are more gay friendly if they have family & friends who are gay.’ friends aren’t free.
The linked story mixes up its terminology — sorry for the confusion. The pageant is specifically for men in drag and excludes transsexuals, as far as I know.
i had a difficult time trying to explain the differences between hijras, drag queens and transsexuals to my friend, who was reading this over my shoulder… thanks seyd & manish for the clarification. i did not realize either that a lot of them were actually pre-op and they were not simply cross dressers (who could be gay, straight, or anything in between)
and i am now going to ‘out’ our dear friend seyd as a fellow TEXAN – that should explain a lot 😉