Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
Ebook270 pages7 hours
Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes
By Don Kulick
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this ebook
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.
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.
Related to Travesti
Related ebooks
Faeries, Bears, and Leathermen: Men in Community Queering the Masculine Restructuring Patriarchy: The Modernization of Gender Inequality in Brazil, 1914-1940 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Different from the Others: German and Dutch Discourses of Queer Femininity and Female Desire, 1918–1940 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInnocent Subjects: Feminism and Whiteness Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Queerly Remembered: Rhetorics for Representing the GLBTQ Past Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSinister Wisdom 106: The Lesbian Body Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDoubting sex: Inscriptions, bodies and selves in nineteenth-century hermaphrodite case histories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGale Researcher Guide for: With a Queer Slant: Audre Lorde, Leslie Feinberg, Samuel Delany, and Dorothy Allison Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTransfeminist Perspectives in and beyond Transgender and Gender Studies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5After Queer Theory: The Limits of Sexual Politics Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sinister Wisdom 105: Passion Fruit and Wet Flowers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAutobiography of an Androgyne Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOutside the XY Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Out North: An Archive of Queer Activism and Kinship in Canada Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Trouble with Harry Hay: Founder of the Modern Gay Movement (Updated Edition) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Queer Public History: Essays on Scholarly Activism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSexual Politics, Sexual Communities: Second Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Invention of Heterosexuality Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black. Queer. Southern. Women.: An Oral History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOut in the Union: A Labor History of Queer America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Trans: A Quick and Quirky Account of Gender Variability Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Trans Historical: Gender Plurality before the Modern Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTrans Studies: The Challenge to Hetero/Homo Normativities Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReclaiming Queer: Activist and Academic Rhetorics of Resistance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWide-Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Readings in Sexualities from Africa Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTransgender Marxism Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Gender Studies For You
Women Don't Owe You Pretty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All About Love: New Visions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths about Sex and Identity in Our Society Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Communion: The Female Search for Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5You're Cute When You're Mad: Simple Steps for Confronting Sexism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Period Power: Harness Your Hormones and Get Your Cycle Working For You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The War Against Boys: How Misguided Policies are Harming Our Young Men Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lost in Trans Nation: A Child Psychiatrist's Guide Out of the Madness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future---Updated With a New Epilogue Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Clobber Passages Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVagina: A re-education Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In the Next Room (or the vibrator play) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rape: The Politics of Consciousness Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Letter to a Bigot: Dead But Not Forgotten Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Voice from the South Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Imaginative Sex Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5When Women Kill Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related podcast episodes
ACT UP: A History Of AIDS/HIV Activism 0% found this document usefulCatherine Knight Steele, "Digital Black Feminism" (NYU Press, 2021): An interview with Catherine Knight Steele 0% found this document usefulWhat does it mean to be “pro-life”? 0% found this document usefulJonathan Rauch On Dangers To Liberalism 0% found this document useful197 - Tadaaki Hozumi on Japanese Esotericism, Lost Civilizations, and The Singularity (Part 1) 0% found this document usefulSusan Cain | The Power of Bittersweetness 100% found this document usefulEpisode 181 Corinna Nicolaou: A None's Story 0% found this document useful
Related articles
Toward A Trans Literature Of The Everyday Literary HubArticle
Toward A Trans Literature Of The Everyday
Sep 10, 2018
6 min readThe Black Women Who Led the Fight for Decolonization in the French Empire Literary HubArticle
The Black Women Who Led the Fight for Decolonization in the French Empire
Sep 29, 2020
2 min readRainbow Voices The CaravanArticle
Rainbow Voices
Jun 20, 2022
4 min readHow Lou Sullivan’s Journals Enrich the History of Trans Literature Literary HubArticle
How Lou Sullivan’s Journals Enrich the History of Trans Literature
Nov 8, 2019
7 min readLove And Resistance Out Of The Closet Into The Stonewall Era All About HistoryArticle
Love And Resistance Out Of The Closet Into The Stonewall Era
Apr 25, 2019
2 min readQueering the “I”: On First-Person LGBTQ Narratives Literary HubArticle
Queering the “I”: On First-Person LGBTQ Narratives
May 19, 2017
5 min readBundles C MagazineArticle
Bundles
Feb 15, 2021
4 min readFor Raquel Willis, Pleasure Is Praxis GAY TIMESArticle
For Raquel Willis, Pleasure Is Praxis
Feb 23, 2024
7 min readReviews All About HistoryArticle
Reviews
Jul 15, 2021
6 min readThe Long Fight to Decolonize Book Research Literary HubArticle
The Long Fight to Decolonize Book Research
May 4, 2020
5 min readAtlas of Identity Dazed and Confused MagazineArticle
Atlas of Identity
Nov 25, 2021
A major tactic of modern transphobic rhetoric – especially against non-binary or genderfluid people – is that we’re making this up. That our identity isn’t rooted in anything. That it isn’t real. It’s imperative, then, to look at the history of gende
16 min readEven When Records Fall Short, Black History Must Be Told Literary HubArticle
Even When Records Fall Short, Black History Must Be Told
Aug 5, 2020
4 min readThe Role of Gender Divides in Social Spaces The AtlanticArticle
The Role of Gender Divides in Social Spaces
Dec 15, 2023
5 min readPAT McCABE IS A VOICE FOR PEACE Dumbo FeatherArticle
PAT McCABE IS A VOICE FOR PEACE
Jun 3, 2020
20 min readDaisy Jones All The Things She Said DIVAArticle
Daisy Jones All The Things She Said
Nov 26, 2021
3 min readWendy S. Walters: There Is No Neutral Body Guernica MagazineArticle
Wendy S. Walters: There Is No Neutral Body
Sep 25, 2019
12 min readTiddas Forever ELLE AustraliaArticle
Tiddas Forever
Feb 16, 2020
4 min readNew Memoir From A Chinese Millennial About Family Life In China NPRArticle
New Memoir From A Chinese Millennial About Family Life In China
Mar 14, 2019
5 min readOPINION - After The Cass Review, We Must Not Push British Trans Youth Into The Internet's Wild West Evening StandardArticle
OPINION - After The Cass Review, We Must Not Push British Trans Youth Into The Internet's Wild West
Apr 12, 2024
3 min readTalk to the Practitioner: Kathleen Alcalá The WriterArticle
Talk to the Practitioner: Kathleen Alcalá
Feb 25, 2023
In the summer of 2010, I learned about Sephardic Jews and Crypto-Jews all at the same time. In my previous 35 years, I’d never even considered anything other than the European Jew, and the only Jews of color I knew were adoptees who’d been adopted in
6 min readTalk to the Practitioner: Kathleen Alcalá The WriterArticle
Talk to the Practitioner: Kathleen Alcalá
Feb 25, 2023
In the summer of 2010, I learned about Sephardic Jews and Crypto-Jews all at the same time. In my previous 35 years, I’d never even considered anything other than the European Jew, and the only Jews of color I knew were adoptees who’d been adopted in
6 min readGo North For A While New Zealand ListenerArticle
Go North For A While
Apr 1, 2024
8 min readHow Journalist Michele Norris Exposed Our 'Hidden Conversations' About Race Los Angeles TimesArticle
How Journalist Michele Norris Exposed Our 'Hidden Conversations' About Race
Jan 17, 2024
5 min readPast To Present The Big Issue MagazineArticle
Past To Present
Jul 20, 2022
6 min readSend Us Your Feedback New InternationalistArticle
Send Us Your Feedback
Nov 1, 2018
Making Peace in a World at War (NI515) was brilliantly done. I was moved and inspired by its accounts of what local people are doing to build peace in the midst of extreme violence and loved its brief introductions to individual peacemakers. I though
3 min readThe Challenges of Writing for White People Literary HubArticle
The Challenges of Writing for White People
Feb 12, 2019
11 min readSome Black Podcasts to Diversify Your Playlist POV MagazineArticle
Some Black Podcasts to Diversify Your Playlist
Nov 6, 2020
4 min readTenets Of Native American Literature The WriterArticle
Tenets Of Native American Literature
Dec 18, 2021
I make my first mistake with Professor Michaelsun Knapp, who teaches at Riverside City College and California State University, San Bernardino, about three-quarters of the way through our time together. We’re talking about where Native American liter
5 min readWas Charlottesville a Turning Point for the 'Alt-Right'? The AtlanticArticle
Was Charlottesville a Turning Point for the 'Alt-Right'?
Sep 6, 2017
8 min readBooks With The Most Impact British Columbia HistoryArticle
Books With The Most Impact
Dec 4, 2021
7 min read
Reviews for Travesti
Rating: 3.8823528294117646 out of 5 stars
4/5
17 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Travesti - Don Kulick
Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1