From Deficient Masculinity to Relational Plenitude: Language and Ethics among Thirunangais in Southern India

This article engages with Tamil thirunangai transgender women’s perceptions and evaluations of masculinity and femininity among themselves and in others. Thirunangai is currently the preferred identity label among transfeminine persons in the city of Chennai in southern India. Pottai is one of many pejorative Tamil words that predate such positive linguistic assertion of Tamil transfeminine identity. In this article, I show how the word pottai is transformed into a word signaling relational plenitude, belonging, and moral selfhood among thirunangais in Chennai. I also attend to three ways in which thirunangais use the word pottai interactionally: (1) to emphasize belonging and intimacy beyond the boundaries of identity, (2) to playfully highlight genres of gendered action, and (3) to show gender’s imbrication with caste and class.