"sexo diferente": estudo entre um grupo de travestis em Belém-Pa

Abstract

Little is known about the transvestite groups that emerge at night and occupy countless corners of Belém. They generate their own ideologies and practices. They are hierarchical groups that mark their territories throughout the city. Transvestites are strongly marginalized, because of the evident notoriety and plurality of stigmas: they have the biological male sex and gradually metamorphose into women; most of the time they prostitute themselves to generate capital to survive, since the job market is not open to them. They seek as the final stage of their transformation the king female body standard set by the Brazilian culture: that of the "hot woman". This corporeal status makes possible a greater profitability and consequently assumes its own meanings, which leads the transvestite who possesses it to assume a higher hierarchical position among the groups and to occupy a more valued territorial position. I tried to use in this work the methodology of visual anthropology: interviews that were filmed, photographic essays, and also participant observation. The subgroup selected for study was the one on Almirante Barroso Avenue, which generally includes individuals from various stages of transformation: from the initial to those who are about to apply silicone, take a large amount of female hormone. Thus it became possible to reveal some facets about the ontogeny of the devaluation suffered by transvestites and some strategies - the forms of resistance they put in place to defend themselves, and which enables reproduction and social organization as a group - recognized in behavior and discourse. I will show the multiple identities and sexual categories observed in the field referring to male sexuality; since transvestites assume different social/behavioral postures throughout their transformations that are analyzed here as a long ritual process of passage.