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Abstract
Indian hijras have captured anthropological, religious, and media attention as they have been categorized as "third-sex," "neither men nor women," and most recently, indexed under the identity structures of "transgender" and "kinnar." From their social, religious, and cultural presences and identities as performers in and across the South Asian subcontinent, hijras primarily function as simultaneously auspicious and inauspicious performers who provide "badhai," or blessings, to newborn babies, newly-wedded couples, or other communities in exchange for money, status, and social securement. Yet, these hijra narratives figure incomplete as hijras engage in and use social media platforms, such as Instagram, to visualize their subjectivities in alternative and uneven ways.This thesis focuses on three contemporary hijras—Laxminarayan Tripathi, Abhina Aher, and Pushpa Maai—and their Instagram pages to explore the identity structures, relationalities, and visual themes that take place within and through their Instagram images. I broadly ask us to consider how these hijras position their bodies, frame their images, and use gestures and aesthetics to perform within their Instagram images on Instagram’s platform. What kinds of aesthetics, mannerisms, and stylizations do they employ and perform through their media? Finally, what does paying attention to these visual expressions reveal about the ways gender and sexuality can be articulated, expressed, negotiated, and even obscured, on social media? I ultimately argue that we should approach and attend to these images as sites of visual performances from which these images do not function as static pieces of media but rather as evolving and performative spaces.