Reconceptualizing Gender through Vivek Shraya’s I’m Afraid of Men

This paper attempts to represent the struggles and hardships faced by trans women through the memoir I’m Afraid of Men by Vivek Shraya. The memoir navigates us through the author’s personal life revolving around her identity as a trans woman and her experiences with transphobia, patriarchy, misogyny and gender prejudice. The author records her several encounters and consequences of non-conformity to gender norms posed by society. The paper tries to reflect on the experiences faced by the author under the lens of Judith Butler’s essay Performative Acts and Gender Constitution, which elucidates the performativity of gender based on social construction. Butler, in her essay, examines gender as a social construct that is essentially performative and puts forth ideas of gender fluidity for performances challenging normative behaviour. Through Butler’s theory of gender performativity, this paper tries to explore the gender-based experiences and violence faced by a trans woman in society.

Keywords: Gender performance, Patriarchy, Non-conformity, Misogyny, Gender prejudice.