A Letter to Choto Thamma

Authors

  • Atmaza Chattopadhyay

Abstract

“A letter to Choto Thamma” is an academic essay written in the format of an informal letter highlighting the difficult yet fulfilling nature of conversation that one has to have with their loved ones when trying to unlearn and dismantle normative binary notions of sex and gender. In this letter, the author tries to communicate the problematic nature of the sex binary to her Bengali grandmother (Choto Thamma is the Bengali term for grandmother), so that they can better support a close family member who has just come out as a transgender woman. By referencing academic readings, the author attempts to not only make the concepts related to trans literature accessible for her grandmother but also tries to ground it to a decolonial Bengali conception of sex, gender and sexuality. 

Author Biography

Atmaza Chattopadhyay

Atmaza Chattopadhyay is a second-year Political Science, Philosophy and Economics student with a minor in Gender and Women's studies. She works as the EDI intern for UBCO library, events coordinator for the Pride Resource Center, president of Amnesty International UBCO and is also a peer mentor. Through her various roles, Atmaza spends a lot of time critically thinking about doing social justice work within an inherently oppressive institution. She also likes spending her time exploring and reading literature written by BIPOC women such as Arundhiti Roy, Audre Lorde and Angela Y Davis. A lot of her goals and ambitions in life are informed by their work. 

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Published

2021-03-04

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2021): World-Building

Section

Creative

License

Copyright (c) 2021 Atmaza Chattopadhyay

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.