Shikhandi and other tales they don't tell you - Devdutt Pattanaik

Image from http://devdutt.com/books/shikhandi-and-other-tales-they-dont-tell-you.html
The warrior Arjuna who turns into  the strong woman-dancer Brihanalla to stay in hiding, Krishna who dresses in Radha's clothes to show his love for her, the men who birthed children.. Devdutt Pattanaik has compiled thirty or so stories from Indian traditions which show that there was understanding that gender was not exclusively male or exclusively female and possibly fluid.

"Queerness" questions the idea of 'male' and 'female' and Pattanaik uses the story to show that Queerness was familiar in Indian mythology. There are those who are neither male nor female, those who are both male and female and those who move between the two at different times.

Each story is told , often in a playful way, and Pattanaik then inserts some notes to discuss the story.

The book is light reading on a part of humanity which is oppressed in many parts of the world.

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