Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes - Couverture souple

Kulick, Don

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0226461009 ISBN 13 : 9780226461007

Editeur : University of Chicago Press, 1998

Synopsis

Travesti Following the lives of a group of transgendered prostitutes in Salvador, this text analyzes the ways that they modify their bodies, explores their motivations, examines their complex relationships and discovers how prostitution for most travestis is a positive and affirmative experience. Full description

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

In this dramatic and compelling narrative, anthropologist Don Kulick follows the lives of a group of transgendered prostitutes (called travestis in Portuguese) in the Brazilian city Salvador. Travestis are males who, often beginning at ages as young as ten, adopt female names, clothing styles, hairstyles, and linguistic pronouns. More dramatically, they ingest massive doses of female hormones and inject up to twenty liters of industrial silicone into their bodies to create breasts, wide hips, and large thighs and buttocks. Despite such irreversible physiological changes, virtually no travesti identifies herself as a woman. Moreover, travestis regard any male who does so as mentally disturbed.

Kulick analyzes the various ways travestis modify their bodies, explores the motivations that lead them to choose this particular gendered identity, and examines the complex relationships that they maintain with one another, their boyfriends, and their families. Kulick also looks at how travestis earn their living through prostitution and discusses the reasons prostitution, for most travestis, is a positive and affirmative experience.

Arguing that transgenderism never occurs in a "natural" or arbitrary form, Kulick shows how it is created in specific social contexts and assumes specific social forms. Furthermore, Kulick suggests that travestis—far from deviating from normative gendered expectations—may in fact distill and perfect the messages that give meaning to gender throughout Brazilian society and possibly throughout much of Latin America.

Through Kulick's engaging voice and sharp analysis, this elegantly rendered account is not only a landmark study in its discipline but also a fascinating read for anyone interested in sexuality and gender.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: University of Chicago Press
• Date d'édition: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0226461009
• ISBN 13: 9780226461007
• Reliure: Broché
• Numéro d'édition: 2
• Nombre de pages: 277