GulfNews.com – By Vinita Bharadwaj, Staff Writer
When the Indian athlete Santhi Soundarajan failed a gender test at the Doha Asian Games, the gender jokes began their rounds – the ones that play on “he”, “she” and “it”.
The ambiguity around Santhi’s gender has already caused her enormous humiliation and hurt – as was evident when she broke down while facing the press in India.
However, the news of Santhi being stripped off her medal has finally thrust the larger issue of gender rights including everybody into the mainstream media. Typically in gender studies classes, topics discussed and debated mostly revolve around women and, sometimes, men. Rarely and certainly not adequately enough, is there enough spoken in the public space about the transgender group.