Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.

Accepted Paper:

Desire axes: Dunia waria in migration  
Terje Toomistu (University of Tartu)

Paper short abstract:

Indonesian male-to-female transgenders (warias) operate within a socially constructed and highly limited “zone”, where shared patterns of lifestyle have emerged. Drawing on my 2011-201 fieldwork, the emergence of the cultural sphere of the waria in Papua, or dunia waria is explored.

Paper long abstract:

Although male-to-female transgenders (called warias) are strongly stigmatized and relegated to an outlaw zone of the modern Indonesian society, they are relatively socially accepted in certain positions. Waria identity is an innate trans* identity, but also socially constructed, in the sense of Judith Butler's concept of gender performativity (1990). Within this socially constructed and highly limited "zone" of waria self-expression, shared patterns of lifestyle have emerged, which are not linked to any particular ethnicity or locality, but are instead national. Unlike most parts of the Indonesian archipelago, Papua does not have a long history of waria presence. Since the 1970s, the world of the waria (dunia waria) has largely travelled to Indonesia's easternmost province Papua along with migrant warias from Java, Sulawesi and Maluku, seeking life experiences and better economic stature. Nurtured by sexual symbolism in the dominant (global) culture, migrant warias perform as role models for indigenous Papuan warias, thus introducing to them the dunia waria, which largely economizes itself around salon and sex work. In this paper I discuss how the cultural sphere of the waria, or dunia waria, has emerged in Papua, drawing on my fieldwork in 2011-2012 in Java and Papua.

Panel P57
Migration, mobility and fluid identities
  Session 1