2 Under the orhni: intimacy and near-invisibility among older Indo-Trinidadian queer menKrystal Nandini Ghisyawan and Marcus Kissoon
Abstract
The orhni symbolises tradition, privacy, secrecy and mystery, tropes that are also associated with Indian gender and sexuality. This chapter explores how these tropes intersect in the lives of three Indo-Trinidadian queer men over 50, each with different education, geographic, religious and socio-economic backgrounds. We additionally spoke with one Afro-Trinidadian queer male activist. We examine how invisibility presents constraints and opportunities for experiencing intimacy and forming intimate bonds, especially when respectability politics plays an active role within the men’s lives. Their stories highlight how their race and ethnic identifications contribute to their sexual subjectivities, their practices of non-disclosure, respect for family values, how they produce community and explore their secret love, sex and dating encounters. We ask, how does this near-invisible population envision intimacy? What does it mean to them, and how do they actualise it?
Abstract
The orhni symbolises tradition, privacy, secrecy and mystery, tropes that are also associated with Indian gender and sexuality. This chapter explores how these tropes intersect in the lives of three Indo-Trinidadian queer men over 50, each with different education, geographic, religious and socio-economic backgrounds. We additionally spoke with one Afro-Trinidadian queer male activist. We examine how invisibility presents constraints and opportunities for experiencing intimacy and forming intimate bonds, especially when respectability politics plays an active role within the men’s lives. Their stories highlight how their race and ethnic identifications contribute to their sexual subjectivities, their practices of non-disclosure, respect for family values, how they produce community and explore their secret love, sex and dating encounters. We ask, how does this near-invisible population envision intimacy? What does it mean to them, and how do they actualise it?
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Thanks and acknowledgements v
- Contents vii
- Notes on editors and contributors ix
- Series editors’ introduction xv
- Foreword xxv
- Introduction to the volume: themes, issues and chapter synopses 1
-
In/visibility and ambivalence
- Under the orhni: intimacy and near-invisibility among older Indo-Trinidadian queer menKrystal Nandini Ghisyawan and Marcus Kissoon 21
- Older kinnars, ageism and sexuality during the COVID-19 pandemic 38
- Doing complex intimacy in the later life of Chinese gay men in Hong Kong 54
-
Women questioning age/ing intergenerationally and intragenerationally
- Deep within the eye of the beheld: exploring hidden accounts of intimacy in the lives of older Indian women in urban Malaysia 75
- From age of despair to window of opportunity? Reframing women’s sexuality in later life in the Middle East and North Africa 93
- Lost voices of Partition: carrying gender, nation and femininity across the life course 115
-
Agency through fantasy, erotic tales and pleasure
- Sexual fantasies and older, Indigenous Purépecha women: sociocultural constraints and possibilities 139
- Indigenous elders as sexual agents through storytelling as a queer and decolonial practice in ‘Canada’ 157
- Sex, intimacy and older life in Muslim contexts 174
- Reflections: themes and issues emerging from the volume 192
- Index 209
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Thanks and acknowledgements v
- Contents vii
- Notes on editors and contributors ix
- Series editors’ introduction xv
- Foreword xxv
- Introduction to the volume: themes, issues and chapter synopses 1
-
In/visibility and ambivalence
- Under the orhni: intimacy and near-invisibility among older Indo-Trinidadian queer menKrystal Nandini Ghisyawan and Marcus Kissoon 21
- Older kinnars, ageism and sexuality during the COVID-19 pandemic 38
- Doing complex intimacy in the later life of Chinese gay men in Hong Kong 54
-
Women questioning age/ing intergenerationally and intragenerationally
- Deep within the eye of the beheld: exploring hidden accounts of intimacy in the lives of older Indian women in urban Malaysia 75
- From age of despair to window of opportunity? Reframing women’s sexuality in later life in the Middle East and North Africa 93
- Lost voices of Partition: carrying gender, nation and femininity across the life course 115
-
Agency through fantasy, erotic tales and pleasure
- Sexual fantasies and older, Indigenous Purépecha women: sociocultural constraints and possibilities 139
- Indigenous elders as sexual agents through storytelling as a queer and decolonial practice in ‘Canada’ 157
- Sex, intimacy and older life in Muslim contexts 174
- Reflections: themes and issues emerging from the volume 192
- Index 209
