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Travesti: an ethnography of transgender sex work
Título Evento
Differences, Inequalities and Sociological Imagination ESA 2015 - 12th Conference of the European Sociological Association 2015
Ano (publicação definitiva)
2015
Língua
Inglês
País
República Checa
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Abstract/Resumo
Travesti is a category used in the Portuguese language (as in French and Spanish) to designate
female trans sex-workers. Drawing on ethnographic work carried out in Lisbon (Portugal) with
trans street prostitutes (Portuguese and Brazilian), we aim to deconstruct views that tend to
homogenize travestis as a group of female trans individuals who cherish their ‘masculinity’ (the
penis) while pursuing typical standards of sexualized feminine beauty and bodily attractiveness
achieved through cosmetic surgery and silicone injections. Contrary to most academic writings,
viewing travestis as a category and identity can be problematic. Rather, though united by sex
work and the practices entailed, lives and subjectivities are plural, ranging from MtF
transsexuals and transgender women to cross-dressed gay men, among other forms of selfidentification.
Against reification and exoticization, the category travesti (as others) can be a
misnomer, hiding the complex entanglements between the diversity found at the intersection of
a vast number of factors and the common gendered position in the sex labour market. Travesti
can be often taken as just a subjectivist identity when in reality it is more a descriptor of an
objective position, which encompasses an enormous diversity. It is not just an identity, not even
for the sex workers who tend, in various conjugations, to resort to different terminologies when
describing themselves and their ‘job’. As we will show through the ethnographic materials
collected within the ERC funded project TRANSRIGHTS, the discourse of travestility is far from
straightforward identitarian coherence. Rather, a material approach is needed.
Agradecimentos/Acknowledgements
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Palavras-chave
Trans; Travesti; Sex work