Boy Cuts

Female Masculinity and Queer Aesthetics in Karachi, Pakistan

Bibliographic Data

ID3638425
AuthorsHafsa Arain (Boston University, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume33
Issue5
Pages585-595
Publication date2024-07-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Gender Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0958-9236 • E-ISSN: 1465-3869
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09589236.2023.2227121
OpenAlexW4381487064
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited27

In Pakistan, compared with the long-established category of khwaja sira, which can be analogous to trans femininity in English, little attention has yet been paid to trans and female masculinities. For trans men, butch women, and nonbinary people assigned female at birth (AFAB), their navigation of public spaces, negotiation of identity and aesthetic expression of gender, and balancing of globalizing LGBTQ+ discourses with pre-existing South Asian forms of queerness has meant that they see their struggles as unique from other types of queer identification and community in Pakistan. This article examines how masculine-presenting AFAB queer and trans young adults in Karachi express themselves through embodied aesthetic forms, such as hair styles and clothing, and negotiate these aesthetic choices with family and community insistences on presenting as proper women. While providing an optic into understanding the complexities of choice and agency that AFAB individuals face in displaying their masculinity, aesthetics is often also a determining factor in how they are treated and seen by others in the various kinds of public spaces that they move between. Their aesthetic choices not only help to better understand marginalized masculinities in Pakistan, but also challenge and disrupt an idealized feminine aesthetic in Pakistan that is related to marriageability and conformity

Aesthetics · Art · Clothing · Embodied cognition · Femininity · Masculinity · Negotiation · Political science · Queer · Sociology · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy

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