Queer Culture in Southeast Asia
When discussing queer culture In modern times, It is automatically classified as a western Idea. Queer Identities and queer struggles are associated with whiteness, as a white concept. This is one of the many causes of colonization, and how in some way it erased the history of oppressed communities. However, pre-colonization history indicates that queer culture had been developed within ancient civilizations. If we look at ancient civilizations in Latin America, societies had a different ideology of what ender was, and were open to the idea of same-sex Interactions.
It Is no different of Southeast Asia. As we examine several cultures we see that queer culture has a historical context within marginalia communities. The Business people are an ethnic group of South Usualness, which is a providence in Indonesia. Their origins trace back to 2500 BCC as being ancestors to people with an Stationeries background. Gender, for this ethnic group, is seen as fluid. There are five genders within this ethnic group: male, female, Calais, Calais and Bissau. The Business people, like other ethnic groups, believed that male-female Identities helped with the structure of the universe.
Thus, ritual specialist exalted androgynous characteristics in order to communicate with spirits. The Bissau, an example of ritual specialist with androgynous characteristics, have the main purpose to give blessings to people, since it is believed that they are possessed by spirits. This ethnic group believes that the Bissau came to be when Bator Guru was sent down to create life in the planet. However, since he was not the best at organizing, so two issue were sent down to help Bator Guru create a culture that would blossom. In this sense. The Business people acknowledge that this culture was created, by two gender non-conforming aides.
The Bissau influenced, is also connected to the modern- day Wars of Indonesia. Part of the connection between the Wars and the Bissau is that they are completely different from Western concepts of transgender culture. Even though I was unable to find much history of the Wars, due to geographical location, It makes sense that a connection does exist between the Wars and the Bliss. Bator Guru, a deity In several Indonesian mythologies, Is a Hindu God. This means that this notion of gender fluidity goes back to Hinduism. However, it Is soul extremely difficult to find any history of queer culture before colonization.
Third-gender identities are now more evident in modern day and post-colonial times. The Philippines are an example of this, but as mentioned before, to find much history of when they came to be Is an extremely difficult task. Malaysia, and the Make Young Is another example of queer culture Is Southeast Asia. This form of traumatized once Is believed to be almost 1000 years old. Now a days, It Is Just seen as any other regular performance, and its roots from queer culture have been neglected, but it’s known that the Make Young and other communities in Malaysia were mainly made up of gender fluid and queer members.
There’s history of queer relationships in the Han Dynasty and Chou Dynasty. Emperor Ai (27 BCC-I CE) and Duke Ling of Wee (534 BCC- 403 BCC), respectively, are example of these cultures. Even though we find these forms of relationships In Ancient South Salsa and East Asia, Southeast Salsa is still hat colonized settlements had been exposed to their own queer culture and queer identities, neglects and oppresses people from those ethnic back grounds, and formulates this idea that within the LIGHT+ community, brown bodies are being saved by colonization, from their “homophobic” cultures.
When thinking of modern day queer culture, and how it intersects with race, I personally think that it’s important to be critical of the history of pre-colonization. Queer identities have been around for years, and they do not belong to western cultures, as we have been taught to believe.
