A01=Don Kulick
Author_Don Kulick
body modification
brazil
Category=JBSF
Category=JHM
cross dressing
drag
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
femininity
gender
gigolo
homosexuality
identity
labor
latin america
lgbt
lgbtq
lgbtqia
male prostitutes
masculinity
men
nonconformity
nonfiction
performance
prostitution
queer
relationships
salvador
sex work
sexuality
sociology
surgery
trans
transgender
travestis
Product details
- ISBN 9780226461007
- Weight: 482g
- Dimensions: 17 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 15 Nov 1998
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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This narrative follows the lives of a group of transgendered prostitutes ("travestis" in Portuguese) in the Brazilian city Salvador. Travestis are males who, at an age as young as ten, adopt female names, clothing styles, hairstyles and linguistic pronouns. They ingest massive doses of female hormones and inject litres of industrial silicone into their bodies to create breasts, wide hips and large thighs and buttocks. However, no travesti identifies herself as a woman, moreover they regard any male that does so as mentally disturbed. The text analyzes the ways that 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. Also examining how they earn their living through prostitution and discussing the reasons that prostitution for most travestis is a positive and affirmative experience.
Arguing that transgenderism never occurs in a natural or arbitrary form, the text shows how it is created in specific social contexts and assumes specific social forms, suggesting that travestis may distill and perfect the messages that give meaning to gender throughout Brazilian society and possibly throughout much of Latin America.
