Making the invisible visible: the instrumental role social media in the recognition and affirmation of identity and rights of transgender persons in Tamil Nadu

EasyChair Preprint no. 2419

Abstract

Social medial like Facebook, Whats app, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter with their interactive elements and easy accessibility have attracted many transgender persons. The main reason to use social media is that it provides them with a personal space for self-expression and assertion of their identity and basic rights as equal human beings. The always carry the scars of being thrown out from their family members, friends and the society at large. Social media offer them a way out by seeking to establish a good relationship with fellow transgender persons and to form networks with many supportive systems. These supportive systems help them to assert their unique identity and raise their voice against all forms of humiliation and oppression. They form various groups in social media to share information about their joys and sorrows, highs and lows, incidents of violence, educational opportunities and other related issues. This information sharing helps them to feel that they are united as one group. Since they come out of the darkness of humiliation, they try to prove their unique talents, skills and capabilities using the facilities of social media. When they become active in social media, the general public ridicule them with the all ill-meaning words and phrases. This research paper tries to make a study how transgender persons make use of social media to establish their identity and rights and what are the challenges they face. By using online ethnography model and focus group discussion, the study has established that social media play an instrumental role in recognizing and affirming the identity and rights of transgender persons.

Keyphrases: identity, rights, self-expression, social media, transgender

@Booklet{EasyChair:2419,
  author = {Arul Arockiam Irudayaraj},
  title = {Making the invisible visible: the instrumental role social media in the recognition and affirmation of identity and rights of transgender persons in Tamil Nadu},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint no. 2419},

  year = {EasyChair, 2020}}