7/27/2019 sexuality in southeast asia

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Teano, Jeramie M. SEA 30 WFW2

2008-15669 Prof. Del Rosario

Sexuality in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia has been referred by scholars as a culture area or in simple terms, an

overlapping culture area because of the several similaritiesin linguistic structures, dietary habits,

religious beliefs and practices, and patterns of kinship/gender, sexuality and socio-political organization.

Gender and sexuality are among of the most interesting features of Southeast Asia in cultural terms

which are closely related to the broadly institutionalized traditions of pluralism. Pluralism in gendered

fields or simply gender pluralism, includes pluralistic sensibilities and dispositions regarding bodily

practices (adornment, attire, mannerisms) and embodied desires, as well as social roles, sexual

relationships, and ways of being that bear on or are otherwise linked with local conceptions of

femininity, masculinity, androgyny, and etc. which are considered legitimate. Under this is the conceptof transgenders. Transgenders refer to those that go beyond the distinct separation of men and

women as individuals by changing their nature, physically and emotionally.

According to Peletz, in his composition entitled, Transgenderism and Gender Pluralism in

Southeast Asia since Early Modern Times, the roots of this trangenderism idea were evident during the

15th

and 16th

centuries, specifically on religious traditions. Religious customs during these periods were

highly dualistic. Relatively egalitarian relations between males and females, good deal of female

autonomy and social control as well as considerable fluidity and permeability in gender roles, were seen

during those times. Many communities of Southeast Asians gave enormous prestige to male-bodied

individuals who dressed in female attire while performing certain rituals associated with royal regalia,births, weddings, and key phases of agricultural cycles. These individuals were highly respected in the

society.

However, the second half of the early modern period, roughly the 17th and 18th centuries,

witnessed dramatic changes which caused alterations and reproduction of transgender practices and

roles. These changes led to the rise of male-oriented, legalistic, and hierarchical world religions such as

Sunni Islam, Theravada Buddhism, Neo-Confucianism, and Iberian-style Catholicism. These eventually

constricted the ritualistic practice of transgender and women, which were experienced during the

Spanish colonization in the Philippines (Spaniards always linked the female shaman with Satanism).

Continued in the present times, all those non-heteronormative genders and sexualities becamedecidedly un-Asian which were once considered as Asian, in spite of the abundant historical and

ethnographic evidence indicating that transgendered practices and identities. It is clearly seen that

transgenderism have been delegitimized due to changes brought by pre-colonial, colonial, and

postcolonial state policies as well as economic, political and religious developments.