• Srenwantee Bhattacharjee

The deep and intimate feeling of being male or female is not always congruent with the individual’s anatomical sex and some people experience some discordance between gender identity and sex assigned at birth on the basis of anatomical features. To indicate this identity condition, many terms exist. Across the globe, transgender is generally used as an umbrella term to indicate all those people living such discordance, though not perceiving the need to undergo surgical interventions and/or hormonal treatments aimed at adapting their body to the perceived gender. Throughout the paper, except where specified, we will use transgender as an umbrella term. Prevailing research on teenage youth notes a trend in which self-identification as lesbian, gay, or bisexual happens at increasingly earlier ages. The term gender identity has been used to describe an individual’s internal sense of self as male, female, or an identity between or outside these two categories (Wilchins, 2002). Individuals whose biological sex assignment matches male or female gender identity and the range of related behavioural expressions deemed acceptable by societal norms may be referred to as “traditionally gendered.” Genderism is pervasive and acts in every institution, starting from families, schools and workplaces. Thus, transgender people face social stigma at different levels, not being often able to find a support even in birth family. Transgender people encounter difficulties in virtually every aspect of their lives, both in facing the substantial hostility that society associates with those who do not conform to gender norms and in coping with their own feelings of difference. Considerable verbal harassment and physical violence accompany the powerful social stigma faced by transgender people. A main source of support and identity recognition originates from peer groups and/or transgender communities, especially for young transgender people. This paper explores the process of social identity formation among Launda dancers in the city of Kolkata as expressed by them. Narrative analysis is an interpretive method that emerged in the 1970s from a rather innovative ‘linguistic turn’ in the social sciences.

Transgender, social identity formation, Launda, narratives

"SOCIAL IDENTITY FORMATION IN TRANSGENDER YOUTHS: NARRATIVES FROM THE LAUNDA COMMUNITY IN KOLKATA", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no.130-134, June 2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1907G62.pdf

"SOCIAL IDENTITY FORMATION IN TRANSGENDER YOUTHS: NARRATIVES FROM THE LAUNDA COMMUNITY IN KOLKATA", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no. pp130-134, June 2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1907G62.pdf