Taboo, Sexuality, Gender, and the Economics of Heteropatriarchy

Taboos reinforce socially constructed gender and sexual hierarchies that affect the expe-riences of all people- women, men, queer, heterosexual, and transgender people. In Delhi, India, institutions of heteropatriarchy, buttressed by colonial history, reproduce and naturalize limits to the agency and economic autonomy of women and queer people. How do individuals and groups simultaneously question and enlarge gendered cate-gories and experiences? Interviews with middle-class people are discussed in the context of scholarship that considers the social, political, and economic histories of the region. Interview responses are triangulated with ethnographic participation in Delhi-based events that examine and confront aspects of heteropatriarchal regulation of people re-garding categories of gender and sexual expression. Themes emerge regarding access to knowledge, economic autonomy, relationships, and family formation. The conclusion reveals ways in which the erosion of taboos and changing roles and identities affect the hierarchal gender binary, producing social tensions and paradoxes.