ABSTRACT This article examines self-making projects and the desire for respectability within queer lives in Kolkata, across distinct class-caste affiliations. We argue the desire for queer respectability take virtual forms, sartorial fashioning, and yet remains a convoluted project mirroring Kolkata’s relationship with neoliberal capitalism. The authors engage with a young lesbian identified activist and a young male fashion designer whose sexual identity remains tacit. Their virtual and real interactions reveal how both the characters conceal their caste and class status through projects of sartorial fashion in order to be read as appropriately queer. The article argues for understanding sexual and gender identities in relation with class, and caste status, as well as ethnic and religious identities, thereby revealing how the liberatory potentials of queer activism is a form of emergent neoliberal governmentality within contemporary India.

中文翻译：

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Aparajita 和 Nishith Chetana：这座城市有争议的面料

摘要 本文探讨了加尔各答酷儿生活中的自制项目和对受尊重的渴望，跨越不同的阶级-种姓关系。我们认为，对酷儿体面的渴望采取了虚拟形式、服装造型，但仍然是反映加尔各答与新自由主义资本主义关系的复杂项目。作者与一位年轻的女同性恋活动家和一位年轻的男性时装设计师交往，他们的性身份仍然默契。他们虚拟和真实的互动揭示了两个角色如何通过服装时尚项目隐藏他们的种姓和阶级地位，以便被解读为适当的酷儿。文章主张理解与阶级、种姓地位以及种族和宗教身份相关的性和性别认同，