Travesti Sex Workers in Brazil
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Travesti Sex Workers in Brazil
Introduction
Travestility in Brazil has been used to refer to the disparateness of travestis’ identities. On the other hand, travesti is an emic idea widely used in Latin America and Brazil. Scholars argue that trying to explain who travestis are can seem paradoxical, especially when travesti identities are talked about as heterogenous, plural and multiple.
Travestis are individuals who change their physical appearance to make it look like a woman’s body. Travestis dress and live their daily life as people belonging to the female gender group, without the desire to undergo reconstructive surgery of removing the penis and constructing a vagina. Their practices, sexual desires as well as means of constructing their gender indicate that the female and male features exist in the same travesti body.
The world of a travesti is characterized by the search for a frequently idealized aesthetic image and a repeated performance of a studied femininity. All they think of is how they can be like women and look the same. Guided by this notion, they undergo a series of practices to permanently modify their bodies. Travestis they take hormones and use industrial liquid silicon to broaden their hips and buttocks.1 Later, they undertake several plastic surgeries to enlarge their breasts and retouch any masculine facial features.
Nonetheless, this group of people understands they will never be women, and they have no intention of following a different from known orthodox transgender identities. Under the silicon and make-up exhibited by their bodies, a certain level of masculinity exists, which they were not intending to get rid of. According to a study carried out in Rio de Janeiro, most respondents reported that they are not women, and they have nothing against women. On the contrary, they like looking like women due to their good image. They like that men look at them as travesti in a body of a
Professor’s Name
Course
Date
Travesti Sex Workers in Brazil
Introduction
Travestility in Brazil has been used to refer to the disparateness of travestis’ identities. On the other hand, travesti is an emic idea widely used in Latin America and Brazil. Scholars argue that trying to explain who travestis are can seem paradoxical, especially when travesti identities are talked about as heterogenous, plural and multiple.
Travestis are individuals who change their physical appearance to make it look like a woman’s body. Travestis dress and live their daily life as people belonging to the female gender group, without the desire to undergo reconstructive surgery of removing the penis and constructing a vagina. Their practices, sexual desires as well as means of constructing their gender indicate that the female and male features exist in the same travesti body.
The world of a travesti is characterized by the search for a frequently idealized aesthetic image and a repeated performance of a studied femininity. All they think of is how they can be like women and look the same. Guided by this notion, they undergo a series of practices to permanently modify their bodies. Travestis they take hormones and use industrial liquid silicon to broaden their hips and buttocks.1 Later, they undertake several plastic surgeries to enlarge their breasts and retouch any masculine facial features.
Nonetheless, this group of people understands they will never be women, and they have no intention of following a different from known orthodox transgender identities. Under the silicon and make-up exhibited by their bodies, a certain level of masculinity exists, which they were not intending to get rid of. According to a study carried out in Rio de Janeiro, most respondents reported that they are not women, and they have nothing against women. On the contrary, they like looking like women due to their good image. They like that men look at them as travesti in a body of a
Bibliography: Gerstner, David, A. Routledge International Encyclopedia of Queer Culture (London: Routledge, 2012). Kulick, Don. Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009).