"With Respect to Sex" is an intimate ethnography that offers a provocative account of sexual and social difference in India. The subjects of this study are "hijras" or the "third sex" of India individuals who occupy a unique, liminal space between male and female, sacred and profane.
"Hijras" are men who sacrifice their genitalia to a goddess in return for the power to confer fertility on newlyweds and newborn children, a ritual role they are respected for, at the same time as they are stigmatized for their ambiguous sexuality. By focusing on the "hijra" community, Gayatri Reddy sheds new...