Gender, Money, and Sexuality: An Exploration into the Relational Work of Pakistani Khwajasiras

Muhammad Junaid Ashraf and Daniela Pianezzi
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Muhammad Junaid Ashraf: Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan
Daniela Pianezzi: University of Verona, Italy

Work, Employment & Society, 2024, vol. 38, issue 4, 1021-1040

Abstract: This study explores how khwajasiras , a community of gender-variant persons in Pakistan, engage in relational work to gain recognition in a heteronormative world. We highlight how these workers negotiate the meanings of their intimate relationships with different forms, frequencies, amounts, and payment media of financial exchanges. We have identified four such relations i.e. romantic relations, spousal relations, taboo relations, and professional relations. Our analysis shows how these relations and associated financial exchanges allow khwajasiras to navigate gender norms and negotiate recognition by alternatively and creatively playing the role of the khwajasira lover, the khwajasira wife, the khwajasira survival prostitute, and the khwajasira professional sex worker. In enacting these roles, they simultaneously reaffirm, redefine, and challenge dominant gender norms while resisting stable and fixed definitions of transgender sex work(ers). These findings unpack the contingent and situated relationship between gender, sexuality, and sex work and the critical role of financial exchange(s) therein.

Keywords: financial exchanges; gender; Pakistan; recognition; relational work; transgender sex workers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:38:y:2024:i:4:p:1021-1040

DOI: 10.1177/09500170231188672

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