ABSTRACT

The sexist assumption is that every woman is lethal (a poison damsel) and a fake. But why is this fear of women not averted when the partner is imagined, on some level, as male? Instead, the homophobic paradigm of the murderous transvestite goes on to argue that a fake woman (that is, a man pretending to be a woman - like BhIma with KIcaka - , or, less often, a woman a man - Sikh~"in) is doubly lethal. Any woman corrupts; a transvestite woman corrupts absolutely. This is one reason why transvestites are more dangerous than transsexuals. For while men who are magically transformed into women may be ashamed, or disenfranchised, they are at least said to experience greater sexual pleasure and, perhaps because of this, do not usually kill anyone. AmM, who is elaborately and explicitly denied any sexual pleasure at all, becomes predictably murderous. But when men merely pretend to become women, they usually experience no sexual pleasure at all but become vicious killers.