Importance of the Eunuchs in Elizabeth Inchbald’s The Mogul Tale
The eunuch is an integral part of the 18th century play The Mogul Tale, by Elizabeth Inchbald. He serves a historical role by being the Mogul’s advisor, watchman, and, most importantly, harem guard. Eunuchs are generally defined as castrated males and are thus excellent choices to guard the Mogul’s women – no fear of the guard taking the ladies for himself. Inchbald reinforces these noble positions by showing the eunuch as the Mogul’s “right-hand man”. But with the passing of time these traditional roles have died along with the people who embraced them. Eunuchs now exist in an India that has all but forgotten their position as protectors. They are now part of a larger, marginalized group that exists on the fringe of Indian society - the hijras1.
Hijras include such minorities as eunuchs, hermaphrodites, transvestites, transsexuals, and homosexuals and “literally means neither male nor female”2. Most hijras undergo a secretive castration operation as part of their religious rites. Because of this secrecy it is unknown as to the exact number of hijras in India. They are described, and describe themselves, as the “ ‘third sex’ – somewhere inbetween and beyond male or female”3. They see themselves as existing inside and above society. Even so, theirs is a day-to-day existence.
Hijras make their money one of three ways: as beggars, as entertainers at traditional ceremonies, and as prostitutes. As beggars hijras are aggressive. Three to four will confront individuals, clapping and making hand gestures. If they are given money, they extend bountiful blessings of fortune and fertility to the giver and his family line. But if they are...
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...oduction of Hijras in Comtemporary Indian Politics.” Social Research
v70.1 (spring 2003): 163(39). (Reddy 181)
6 Reddy 165
7 Reddy 176
8 Butalia 5
9 Reddy 177
10 Reddy 164
11 “In from the Outside: India’s Long Mistreated Eunuchs are Teaming Up to Demand
Equal Rights and Better Health Care.” Time International v156.11 (Sept 18,
2000): 25. (In from the Outside 25)
12 Allahbadia and Shah 49
13 Allahbadia and Shah 49
14 Slijper, Froukje M.E. “Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijras of India.” Archives of
Sexual Behavior v26 n4 (Aug 1997): 450(4). (Slijper 452)
15 Pimlott 46
16 Pimlott 47
17 “In from the Outside” 25
18 Allahbadia and Shah 48
19 Reddy 166
20 Reddy 164
21 Reddy 166
22 “In from the Outside” 25
23 Reddy 178-9
24 Reddy 166
25 Reddy 164
26 Reddy 167-8
27 Reddy 170
Walt Whitman’s early life and childhood had an impact on his works of poetry later in his life. Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, in West Hills, New York. His parents were Walter and Louisa Van Velsor Whitman. At the age of four, Whitman and his family moved to Brooklyn, living in a series of different houses due to bad investments by his parents. Whitman later viewed his childhood as sad and unhappy, because his family frequently moved and they were in a poor financial situation. Throughout most of his childhood, Whitman and his family were in constant financial duress. At the age of eleven, Whitman finished his formal education and started to look for a job. Whitman finished school at such a young age, so he could get a job
A lady is an object, one which men attempt to dominate. A man craves to get a hold of this being beneath his command, and forever have her at his disposal. In her piece “Size Six: The Western Women’s Harem,” published in 2002, Fatema Mernissi illustrates how Eastern and Western women are subjugated by the control of men. Mernissi argues that though she may have derived from a society where a woman has to cover her face, a Western woman has to face daily atrocities far worse then ones an Eastern woman will encounter. Moreover, Mernissi’s core dogma in “Size 6: The Western Women's Harem” is that Western women are not more fortunate than women raised into harems in other societies. Additionally, she asserts that though women in the Western world are given liberties, they coincide with the unattainable ideals of what is aesthetically pleasing. Furthermore, to strengthen her argument towards her wavering audience, Mernissi’s main approach in her paper is to get the reader to relate with her issue by means of an emotional appeal, while also utilizing both the ethical and logical appeal to support her thesis.
A Thousand and One Nights is a tale about the over-sexed east which is favored by the sexually repressed west when applied to and analyzed under the lens of Orientalism. This translation of the text, while not as sexually explicit as Sir Richard Burton’s translation, has its fair amount of sexual promiscuity which paints the middle eastern characters as dishonest, violent, and sexually deviant. These traits were seen as socially taboo to the west, especially those in Victorian Europe who helped the tale gain its reputation as a popular exotic story. The two main scenes where these traits come into play both take place within A Thousand and One Nights’ frame story with Shahrayar and Shahzarman. Shahzarman
The uncontainable despair of the weeping and screaming parents entering a room full of body bags containing the altered remains of their children. In a room drained with blood and surrounding fridges for the maintenance of the ejected organs, everything seems miserably surreal(“Children Kidnapped for Their Organs”). This is only one of the discovered cases of the daily dozens of people killed for organ harvestation. Adding up to ten thousand illegal operations in 2012 which translates to hourly sales (Samadi). These abhorrent acts add up as crimes against humanity which are triggered by a numerous amount of reasons; in order to stop these constant atrocities we must uncover the root of the causes.
The Beshir Agha's memoir written by Hathaway, allows us to plunge into the facts and the concealed world of the eunuchs.Hathaway proceeds with his article by providing a brief introduction to Beshir's biography. Saying, he was emanated from the eastern part of Africa, Abyssinia. At first, when I began reading, I felt so frustrated and obnoxious due to the way castration was held and its attributed appalling treatment. But through continuing the reading, I perceived the momentum functionality of eunuchs in prospering and enhancing the economy in the Islamdom empires. Indeed, I'm not justifying the atrocity that had encountered those eunuchs, though.According to text, there is an account of two brothers whom originally emanated from Georgia,
Traditional female characteristics and female unrest are underscored in literary works of the Middle Ages. Although patriarchal views were firmly established back then, traces of female contempt for such beliefs could be found in several popular literary works. Female characters’ opposition to societal norms serves to create humor and wish- fulfillment for female and male audiences to enjoy. “Lanval” by Marie De France and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer both show subversion of patriarchal attitudes by displaying the women in the text as superior or equal to the men. However, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” also incorporates conventional societal ideas by including degradation of women and mistreatment of a wife by her husband.
Additionally this is linked with De Groots’ argument on the representation of foreign females, stating that the oriental women were ‘socially marginal, sexually powerless and regarded by westerners as inferior and virtually prostitute’s’. Henceforth, any person who just falls out of the rigid column of normal such as Juilia Pastrana is subjected to discussions on defining the ‘normal and the
As “we live in a culture that thinks in binary categories” (Ochs, 1996: 224), the existence of other sexual and gender identities are denied and discriminated against, such as “third sex” people. Individuals who are “third sex” have a gender identity that does not fit neatly into the categories of ‘male’ and ‘female’, and may have same-sex relations or both (homosexual or bisexual). People tend to identify that “third sex” individuals have freedom from the gender binary; however, that is not necessarily the case (Ochs, 1996). Some “third sexes” like transgender people are likely to face particular challenges in living out their sexualities. For example, in societies which refuse to recognise their gender identities, with high rates of rape and sexual violence from law enforcement and others, and discrimination by sexual health services, transgender people may struggle to negotiate their own sexual interactions (Ilkkaracan & Jolly, 2007). In addition, transgender people may face labour market discrimination when sex work may be the only means to generate income (Ilkkaracan & Jolly, 2007). More importantly, transgender and like many “third sex” people, can struggle to affirm their sense of self with lovers who see them as they wish to be
I began investigating gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer (GLBTQ) representations of the sacred during my late adolescence. In college, my knowledge of same-sex desiring and gender-variant deities evolved into a study of the spiritual roles and legacies of GLBTQ people. Such legacies are abundantly evident in parts of the world where indigenous and pluralist religion have remained unhindered, such as on the Indian subcontinent where hijra (male-bodied female-identified individuals) are seen as harbingers of good fortune and curses and perform ceremonies at weddings and births. Early written accounts of traditional same-sex desiring and gender-variant roles in the Western hemisphere can be found in the diaries of the first colonizers as well as an engraving memorializing Vasco Núňez de Balboa’s massacre of third-gender American Indians in what is now Panama. Pejoratively referred to as berdache by early anthropologists (from the Arabic, meaning ‘slave boy’), many modern GLBTQ First Nations people have adopted the term Two-Spirit as a pan-tribal identity that reclaims their traditional spiritual and social roles while transcending labels denoting mere sexual orientation. The term affirms them as unique whole human beings.
One of the most important and prevalent issues in healthcare discussed nowadays is the concern of the organ donation shortage. As the topic of organ donation shortages continues to be a growing problem, the government and many hospitals are also increasingly trying to find ways to improve the number of organ donations. In the United States alone, at least 6000 patients die each year while on waiting lists for new organs (Petersen & Lippert-Rasmussen, 2011). Although thousands of transplant candidates die from end-stage diseases of vital organs while waiting for a suitable organ, only a fraction of eligible organ donors actually donate. Hence, the stark discrepancy in transplantable organ supply and demand is one of the reasons that exacerbate this organ donation shortage (Parker, Winslade, & Paine, 2002). In the past, many people sought the supply of transplantable organs from cadaver donors. However, when many ethical issues arose about how to determine whether someone is truly dead by either cardiopulmonary or neurological conditions (Tong, 2007), many healthcare professionals and transplant candidates switched their focus on obtaining transplantable organs from living donors instead. As a result, in 2001, the number of living donors surpassed the number of cadaver donors for the first time (Tong, 2007).
The Eunuch in the story, Philip and the Eunuch, had a very prestigious job in Ethiopia. Eunuchs in general hold places of respect and trust in eastern courts. He was an Official of Candace which connects him to the kingdom of Meroe (Anchor 667). The Eunuch would have worked closely with the queen of Ethiopia and was therefore held in high regard in the kingdom (Witherington III 296). Which makes this Eunuch a very smart and literate man who knows a lot about politics. We know that the Eunuch would have been most likely black or African American (Witherington III 295) due to the fact that Ethiopia was on the fringe of the known word which was the territories south of Egypt. The story of the Eunuch and Philip is a great story to see just how far the word of God will go.
First argument we will analyze is whether or not organ transplantation should be permitted is an argument by Kishore D. Phadke and Urmila Anandh “Refuse to Support the Illegal Organ Trade.” Kishore and Urmila observe that, even though organ sales are prohibited in all countries, society has shifted towards organ transplantation that could be bought instead. In developing countries such as India, laws against organ transplant are not enforced and have popular support towards the practice. The authors call for medical profession to refuse to help and be part of this “unscrupulous trade, they also state reasons behind such practice which includes exploiting the poor, discourages altruistic giving, commercializes the body, and undercuts human dignity.
Peter Zilahy once said,” You have to make choices even when there is nothing to choose from.” This quote vastly reflects the life of Elizabethan women for many reasons. The main reasons for this includes: life determinations- education , career , even the food on the table, was controlled by one thing, Wealth! Wealth controlled an immense part of people’s lives. Additionally, there were even fashion laws controlled by wealth. Furthermore, women’s rights were highly restricted during this era. Women did not live the same during this time.
The author describes Hijras, which are an alternative gender, neither men or women. In todays US society I do not think that there is a “alternative gender”, but the most relatable gender that I would consider to be more similar to Hijras are those whom are transgender. Which is a person whose self-identity does not conform unambiguously to a conventional male or female gender. Reason being is that those whom are Hijra are raised as man and then undergoes genital removal, which is similar to what some transgender individuals go through. Therefore, similarities between the third gender, other than I do not see any similarities. Due to the fact that a majority of those whom cohabit the US are so fixed upon the fact that you are either male or female and there are no in between. The Hijars are not looked down upon in any way rather they are “so respected” in Bombay which is completely different from the amount of respect that transgender individuals get here in the
A human is born completely as he must end his life completely. No one on earth can buy a life. But people are buying part of a human life causing people to live with a body that’s not completed. In general, many people in the modern world are unwilling to legalize the sale of human organs even if it was a part of a dead human body (Mill, 2009). Also, selling organs is mostly against the moral values to some religions like Islam. However, in the modern world the increase of organ transplants is affected by the shortage of supply of the organs.