Kanaga Varathan
Top YouTube search results for the term “Transgender Tamil”:
Trigger warning: Explicit mention of sexual assault, violence. Will be triggering for trans people.
It is not like everyday a trans person gets to occupy a stage, tell their stories, have their voice heard. Everyone might have a story but not everyone knows how to tell one. We all need a bit of a push, a little nudge, a bit of staging so to make powerful stories. After all a victim needs a bit of help; you must be a victim, right?
Trans woman is too posh. You should just say transgender to make it appealing. Thirunangai is too local, third gender is too vulgar and politically not right anymore, but Transgender is just about right.
We should maybe start with your childhood memories; make the narrative powerful. No, not the happy ones. Tell us about the first time you were sexually assaulted. That will unsettle the audience. Were you assaulted as a minor, sorry if it is triggering? Was it a relative, a family friend or a tuition teacher perhaps.
When did you realize you are a transgender, you must have an incident. Like when you wore makeup secretly and your parents found out, something like that. Usually people get beaten after, weren’t you? Or can you connect with the sexual assault episode? We must set the stage here or else this won’t be interesting.
Let’s talk about school life, that’s where a lot of bullying must have happened. I hope you haven’t gone blank with childhood trauma. It’s usually the worst, where people have a lot of experiences but don’t remember to tell the stories.
Can you talk about how was it growing up? Were you abused, beaten up, which movie songs were used against you, what pop-culture references did people use, how were you called, the insults and slurs specifically. This is also culturally important as we already know people from south are called this and north are called that—it will be interesting to know your experience. Do you have any kinky associations with those terms, do you secretly enjoy when men call you that on the streets. Maybe you want to shout out loud that you are proud to be those Insults. We can help you reclaim; it will just spice up the whole scene.
Now I want to ask about when you became a woman. I mean, your operation. Where did you do it, how did you feel after? Did you feel complete? I have heard earlier people used to do it without anesthesia and medical supervision, can you imagine? this generation must be lucky know, now govt does it for you free of cost.
No, no mental health will not work. It needs an elite vibe. We usually keep it for Lesbian types. A Pixie cut with a lot of tattoos and piercings that’s the image people associate with mental health. For a transgender in a cheap saree with broken English, we should just focus on physical violence.
See, I’m trying to help you out here. You were neither a beggar nor have you done any sex work. You know how difficult it is without these two pasts. Go and check YouTube, assault stories of transgender sex workers are the hot cake today.
We need to shake the audience if we can show some scars that will be lit. Did the team tell you about stripping? If you can strip a bit and show some scars that will be so sensational. Of course, we don’t want to do anything that you are not comfortable with but take some time to think about it.
Absolutely, we can talk about positive things. In fact, my colleague was telling me this morning that Koovagam stories are so 2000s, we need pride ones to play it for today. When did you first walk in the pride march? How did you feel, to see there are people like you and you are not alone anymore. Did you feel liberated? You must have.
Our approach here will be to show your story as that of a phoenix. Young, bold, English speaking, firebrand activist type who can challenge the society on its privilege. We will show your phenomenal journey in life, you can tell me what motivated you, how you broke away from your clutches, what inspired you, who saved you, is it an NGO? You will be an inspiration for others. People should be ashamed after seeing this. When you can achieve, why can’t they?
Did you find your activist voice, what do you want your punch line to be, what do you want to ask? Hmm, reservation and free housing are ok, but can you say something more powerful? Like, “we will not let the cis-het society dance on our bodies anymore”. A strong message with almost a heroic touch. Remember the unapologetic feminist story we did, the one called “smash cis-het patriarchy” she is an icon now, with 20k followers and verified twitter profile, think of something like that.
Our final act will be Motherhood, that’s our trump card, we must hit the bull’s eye. Cry your heart out, spill your gut on how you can never be a mother, how your boyfriend left you because you cannot give him a child. You can talk about suicidal attempts here. We need tears, real tears, this one will never get old with our viewers.
A celebrity was born that day, loved, and cherished by followers. Filling social media with likes, hearts, and hugs eventually choking the person behind.
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Kanaga Varathan is a Tamil techie and a Trans woman who refuses to be victimized.
