Instituto de Ci锚ncias Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa - Laborat贸rio Associado
ICS
WORKING PAPERS 7 BEAUTY, POWER AND DEATH: TRAVESTI SEX WORKERS IN BRAZIL Julieta Vartabedian Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal
2014
ICS WORKING PAPERS
COMISSÃO EDITORIAL Sofia Aboim (coordenação) Andrés Malamud Dulce Freire João Mourato João Vasconcelos Rui Costa Lopes
2014
Beauty, power and death: travesti sex workers in Brazil
Julieta Vartabedian
ICS
WORKING PAPERS
2014
Abstract Drawing on my fieldwork experience with Brazilian travesti sex workers in Rio de Janeiro, I agree that travestis’ desire for beauty both structure their daily experiences and empower them. Travestis have to engage with a complicated, dangerous and expensive career in order to construct their own identities. The attainment of a beautiful body is at the core of their interests. Travestis seek a sense of “perfection”, that is, they strive to be like women, but a beautiful and desirable one. Their aim is to create bodies that can achieve feminine and glamorous shapes. They usually combine home-made beauty practices (injection of industrial and liquid silicone) with those coming from official medicine (use of hormones and cosmetic surgeries). However, they also engage in tense exchanges of validation, rivalry and camaraderie with other travestis at different stages of their own hierarchies. Being a “successful” travesti means to be a beautiful one, an admired and respected travesti. Every corporal improvement reinforces their self-identity and status within the group. At the same time, in this paper I will analyse what it means to be a travesti in a Brazilian society that is rather intolerant towards sexual and gender diversity. Although their lives can be very hard, it is through the processes engaged in to produce beautiful and feminine bodies that travestis give sense to their existence and find a place, although uncertain and marginalised, in their communities and in the world.
Keywords: travestis, beauty, empower, transphobia, Brazil.
Julieta Vartabedian completed her PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of Barcelona. She is a postdoc researcher on a European Research Council funded project coordinated by Dr Sofia Aboim and called “TRANSRIGHTS - Gender citizenship and sexual rights in Europe: transgender lives from a transnational perspective”, at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon (Portugal).
2
ICS
WORKING PAPERS
2014
Brazil is constructed as a symbol of beauty (not only because of its women, but also for its landscapes, beaches, Carnival). Feeling beautiful and in good shape are very important issues if you live in Brazil. In the last two decades, the beauty industry has boomed in this country. Brazil also has the second highest rate of plastic surgery in the world, after the United States1. In the city of Rio de Janeiro, the importance of the body in everyday life is quite visible. Bodies are displayed, compared, scrutinized and exercised (Goldenberg, 2006). Through their bodies people identify themselves or are identified by others as belonging to particular groups. The body is at the core of one of the construction of social hierarchies in Brazil (Edmonds, 2010). In this paper I will pay attention to a group which, although reflects national concerns about beauty, has its own particularities in the way they experience and live a beautiful body. I will analyse Brazilian travestis’ beautification practices and the social, cultural and sexual processes involved in feeling a beautiful travesti. I will also examine how is to be a travesti in a society that is rather intolerant towards sexual and gender diversity. I will present, then, mainly an ethnographic research I conducted with Brazilian travestis both in Rio de Janeiro and Barcelona2. I will exclusively talk about Brazil as it is the place where these identities are created and as a researcher it was where I got involved more intensely in the universe of travestis. My aim with this paper is to: 1) contextualise the experiences of travestis within a heteronormative society as the Brazilian one and, 2) understand the main ways travestis have found to construct themselves as social subjects who have the rights to live their gender identities as they want to do it.
1
International Survey on Aesthetic/Cosmetic Procedures Performed in 2013, http://www.isaps.org/Media/Default/global-statistics/2014%20ISAPS%20Global%20Stat%20Results.pdf (accessed 6th December 2014). 2 In the first part of my fieldwork, I stayed for six consecutive months in Rio de Janeiro in 2008 and thanks to the invitation of the Programa em Gênero, Sexualidade e Saúde, Instituto de Medicina Social, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. The second part of my work took part in the city of Barcelona in non-continuously between 2009 and 2011. In both cities, I carried out interviews with Brazilian travestis, plastic surgeons and agents of NGO´s related to travesti sex workers.
3
ICS
WORKING PAPERS
2014
1. Who are they? Travesti is a Latin American term used to refer to people who want to look and feel like women without giving up some male characteristics, such as their genitals. With this premise, they are aware that they cannot be women; they mainly seek to resemble them from the construction of a constantly negotiated femininity. They are not crossdressers nor transvestites as they perform a type of constant femininity: they live all day as women, and the vast majority modify their bodies in a permanent way (Kulick, 1998; Benedetti, 2005; Pelúcio, 2009). At the same time, their desire to keep their male genitalia also differentiates them from some more orthodox transsexuals for whom gender reassignment surgeries3 seem to be a necessary requirement to fully experience their gender identities (Mercader, 1997). There is frequently great confusion about travestis, mostly in Europe. People believe they are transsexuals or transvestites. Latin America has greater awareness and tradition in studying travestis, especially Brazil (Silva, 1993; Oliveira, 1994; Silva and Florentino, 1996; Siqueira, 2004; Peres, 2005; Benedetti, 2005; Vale, 2005; Teixeira, 2008; Patrício, 2008; Pelúcio, 2009; Duque, 2009). It is important, then, to consider travestis are not transsexuals nor transvestites. They are travestis and they usually want to be called like this. Therefore, in this paper I will respect their self-identification, avoiding any kind of ethnocentric colonization of the categories that are used (Valentine, 2007). As my research participants from Rio clearly expressed: I am not a woman. I have nothing against women, on the contrary, I barely... I like looking like... taking the place of a woman, a good image of a woman. Men see me like this in a woman´s body, but this way, a travesti. I like that men see me as a travesti in the body of a pretty woman (Samanta). […] we are not women, we look like women. I have never wanted to be a woman, I have always been very smart, I have always wanted to look like [emphasis from the interviewee] a woman. “To look like”, “to be” is a different thing. [...] I will never
3
I use gender reassignment surgery instead of sex reassignment surgery to refer both to genital and nongenital procedures (Aizura, 2011).
4
ICS
WORKING PAPERS
2014
be a woman, I will not be able to give birth, you always have a prostate, my blood will say that I am a man… (Lina).
Travestis exist throughout Latin America (and the world) but they are significantly well known and numerous in Brazil. Although a few succeed in achieving fame and admiration through some theatre shows, they hardly represent the great majority of travestis. Most come from very poor backgrounds, have a very low level of education, are stigmatized and suffer violence from the police, their clients (sexual work is generally their main employment) and society in general. It is not easy to be a travesti in a Brazilian society that is very intolerant and ambiguous towards sexual and gender diversity (Green, 2000). The supposed freedom and permissiveness Brazil emanates through their Carnival festivities are contrasted with the presence of a rigid gender system and patriarchal tradition (Parker, 1991).
2. Travestis in Brazil According to DaMatta (1997), the consideration of the Carnival as an event where gender roles are reversed and the social differences fade is an illusion. Numerous studies (Bastide, 1959; Scheper-Hughes, 1992; Green, 2000) claim that heterosexual men who temporarily become transvestites, that is, men who dress up as women during Carnival, rather than reversing gender roles are in fact reaffirming collectively their masculinity through a parody or farce, “showing how far they can go beyond their own heteronormative limits” (Figari, 2009, p. 134). However, the Carnival became the place par excellence where travestis could publicly display themselves without fear of repression from the military dictatorship in past decades4. Since the seventies, travestis began to massively go out to contest spaces usually claimed by female sex workers. Though, gaining this visibility has not been easy in a social and political context where everything was prohibited. As the military government considered them enemies of the “moral of the Brazilian family”, they had to be combated (Balzer, 2010, p. 88). Travesti Fernanda Farias de 4
Brazilian military dictatorship lasted from 1964 to 1985.
5
ICS
WORKING PAPERS
2014
Albuquerque recounts in her biography that “in Rio we were killed as if we were chickens. Three or four travestis per week. The news ran in the blink of an eye, from a sidewalk to another, at dawn we found them in a few lines of the newspaper” (Albuquerque and Janelli, 1996, p. 79). Transphobia, discrimination, police brutality and impunity determined the day-to-day of travestis, highlighting the precarious border between life and death. While I was in Rio de Janeiro, I started to hear the expression “survivors” to refer to those who were older travesti sex workers (50 years old approximately) and had had to struggle during the hardest period of travesti persecution in Brazil. They used to cut themselves with a hidden blade in different parts of the body mainly arms and necks, while they were arbitrarily arrested (“Gillette in the flesh”, according to Mott and Assunção, 1987). They claimed habeas corpus, that is, their immediate release. Thus, they only had their own bodies to protest and threatened the police with their possible infected blood in order to be freed. It is undeniable that the situation has improved today compared to the last thirty/forty years. Both the intensity and the magnitude of violence have decreased. New generations of travestis recognize that they have more opportunities to live their identities as travestis (Duque, 2009). However, they are still far from being full citizens. Murders continue to take place, insults and street assaults are very common and prejudice against them is still very powerful. According to the Transgender Europe’s Trans Murder Monitoring project5, it was revealed in November 2014 that there have been a total of 226 cases of reported killings of trans6 people in 28 countries in the last 12 months, with the majority from: Brazil 113, Mexico 31, Honduras 12, USA 10, Venezuela 10. In addition, there have been a total of 1,612 reported killings of trans people in 62 countries worldwide from January 1st 2008 to September 30th 2014. Only in Latin America, Brazil is at the top of the position with 644 reported cases, following by Mexico (177), Venezuela (83), Colombia (82), and Honduras (70). 5
http://www.transrespect-transphobia.org/uploads/downloads/2014/TDOR2014/TvT-TDOR2014PRen.pdf (accessed 1st December 2014). 6 I use the term trans as an umbrella-term to include the wide variety of gender identities: transgender people, transsexuals, cross-dressers or travestis, among others.
6
ICS
WORKING PAPERS
2014
Beyond the staggering numbers, the cruelty and brutality of these murders are surprising. For example, travestis are often shot not just once, but multiple times. Also their bodies frequently show signs of dozens of knife wounds. This excess arguably shows the high level of hatred that these travesti’s bodies can incite (Denizart, 1997). They are not only killed but also their bodies are horribly punished because of their infractions, that is, their desire to live as women. Transphobia against them is a symptom of their gender identity reaffirmation because their bodies are understood as “abject objects”7. These bodies belong to viados (“fags”) (Kulick, 1998) and they offend a patriarchal society when making their bodies feminine and desiring other men: they must be punished. Once I presented briefly how difficult can be to live as a travesti in Brazil, I will show next how their beautiful bodies act as an element of self-reaffirmation and power. Although it is very rough to be a travesti in Brazil, they find beauty as a space where they can achieve legitimacy and be recognised, at least positively within the limits of a heteronormative model of femininity.
3. (Trans)formed beauty Feminist scholars have particularly questioned who is in charge of the definitions of beauty standards and what the reasons are to keep them (Colebrook, 2006). Two main theoretical positions have contributed to the discussion: beauty as part of a structure of patriarchal oppression (Young, 1980; Chapkis, 1986; Wolf, 1991; Morgan, 1991) and beauty as a way to achieve female agency (Davis, 1991, 2003; Cahill, 2003; Gimlin, 2007). “Western” transsexual women are often accused of reinforcing gender norms rather than transgressing them. It is said that through gender reassignment surgeries, cosmetic surgeries and performances of a “correct” femininity, many transsexual women succumb to the power of heterosexuality to passively adapt to the dichotomous model of masculinity/femininity (Kando, 1973; Mackenzie, 1994; Jeffreys, 7
Butler (2002) claims that within the heterosexual framework in a simultaneous way, the formation of subjects requires the creation of that which cannot be articulated, abject bodies, those who are not “subjects”. She says that “abjection implies literally the action of throwing off, rejecting and excluding and therefore, this abjection produces a zone where difference is established” (pp. 19-20, note 2).
7
ICS
WORKING PAPERS
2014
1998). However, as proposed by Sullivan (2003), instead of accusing transsexuals as thoughtless subjects deceive by the heteronormative system of “Western” society, it can be productive to think that transsexuals, like all of us, are both agents and the result of the constraints of the world in which we live. For many transsexual people, “passing”, that is, the ability to “pass” and being accepted in the gender presented, is a question of survival, life-or-death. “It means not being denied a job, laughed at, beaten up, or even killed because one is ‘weird’” (Sullivan, op. cit., p. 106). In this way, the subversive potential of trans people can be challenged considering their everyday material difficulties and discriminations experienced (Namaste, 2000). Although for medical establishment gender reassignment surgeries and/or hormone therapies play a normalizing and corrective role, those who are subjected to these practices are not necessarily considered passive victims of the gender system order in society: “we transsexuals are something more, and something other, than the creatures our makers intended us to be” (Stryker, 1994, apud Sullivan, op. cit., p. 107). There are few ethnographic works that analyse beauty through the embodiment experiences of trans people. Some of them focus on trans beauty pageants as places where gender, “Western” beauty patterns, and the ideas of nation and modernity are intersected For example, Johnson (1997) analyses the “glamour” and “style” gay/bantuts display in local beauty contests in Southern Philippines; Wong (2005) examines the importance beauty contests have for kathoeys in Thailand; and Ochoa (2014) studies how femininities are produced through the analyses of female (misses) beauty contests and transformistas (trans women) in Venezuela. Thai beauty pageants as Miss Tiffany Universe, Miss Alcazar Purple Crown or Miss International Queen are important nationally televised events where feminine kathoeys “embody cultural norms of beauty” (Jackson, 2011, p. 36). While Thai cinema and popular culture perpetuate images and stereotypic mockeries of kathoeys as fake women (Ünaldi, 2011), kathoeys do not accept passively their “second-class status”. They spend a lot of money and time in medical and cosmetic technologies to reach their own feminine ideal of beauty, thus claiming “for recognition and status in a beauty-obsessed society” (Jackson, op. cit., p. 36). Therefore, as cultural agents, they challenge Thai mass media promoting positive images of an internationally recognised
8
ICS
WORKING PAPERS
2014
feminine beauty. Although for global trans communities “Thailand is the ‘Mecca’ of gender reassignment surgeries” (Aizura, 2009, p. 307), kathoeys prefer to seek aesthetic surgical procedures rather than the genital ones8. They usually engage in practices to whiten their skins, narrow their noses and make their eyes “Western”looking. But as Aizura stresses, The importance of modernity as a desirable commodity cannot be underestimated here. Skin whitening creams, rhinoplasty, eyelid surgery and so on are forms of somatechnical capital, valuable not only for the physical transformation or beautification they promise but for the very practice of being seen to consume something. The commodity being consumed here is not only a technique of embodied transformation but the state of being modern itself (Aizura, 2009, p. 313).
It is through the processes involved in creating beautiful kathoeys that they claim for recognition, embodying ultra-feminine and “Westernised” beauty. Being “modern” it signifies being middle class, white, “Western” and consumers. However, beyond feminist critics on the hegemony and normalisation of “Western” beauty standards, it is highlighted kathoeys’ appropriation of a commodified beauty that, at least temporally, evades them from a Thai society that is not respectful towards gender diversity. Thailand is considered as a tolerant country with its kathoeys and other forms of gender and sexual expression: “the myth of a Thai gay paradise” (Jackson, 1999). But visibility it does not mean acceptance and kathoeys are highly stigmatised and rejected by society (Cameron, 2006). Although trans prejudices and marginalization are not subverted, achieving beauty, a “Westernised” one, enables kathoeys to construct themselves as “modern” and admired beautiful subjects. I will now focus on how Brazilian travestis experience and live beauty in order to deeper the analysis on trans beautification practices and the social, cultural and sexual processes involved in feeling beautiful.
8
As Aizura (2011) explains in detail, gender reassignment surgeries are very expensive to them, as Thai clinics and surgeons provide their services mainly to non-Thai trans people.
9
ICS
WORKING PAPERS
2014
4. Becoming a travesti Aspiring travestis have to start a complicated, dangerous and expensive career in order to become a travesti. It is an endless process because they are always looking for “perfection”, that is to say, to feel like women. But they do not want to be like any woman, but a beautiful and desirable one, generally white9 and bourgeois (Pelúcio, 2005). Travesti’s beautification practices are part of a gradual process related to the geographical displacements every travesti experiences when moving from their small home town to a big city like Rio de Janeiro and, in many cases, from there to Europe. Frequently, they are thrown out of their homes or they run away to big cities looking for the tolerance and freedom lacking in their place of origin. Most of the travestis with whom I interacted came from villages outside Rio de Janeiro. How did they arrive? The vast majority arrived as gayzinhos, an emic classification which means young gays, that is, they had assumed their sexual orientation but they did not dress up as women yet. Only a few started to ingest feminine hormones while still living in their small and poor towns. As one of my key-research participants (Reyna) sums it up, when they first arrive they are “very primitive, as a ‘diamond in the rough’”. Rio de Janeiro is an important school in the life of a travesti, among other cities. It is where they will learn everything they need in their lives: how to do make up and how to dress, how to transform their bodies and how to be a sex worker. Mães (mothers) and madrinhas (godmothers)10 are travestis with more experience and economic means who are at the top of the system. They protect, guide and advise those travestis who have just arrived into the big city. In exchange for this “protection”, the filhas (daughters) or afilhadas (god-daughters) show respect but also pay them money periodically. This way, there is an exchange of symbolic and economic goods to enter into the universe of travestis. They will start an intense life and, for many of them, an intense and short life. But it is important to understand that it is not 9
Although it was not enough explored in my research, I noticed in Brazil that many travestis consider as an aesthetic ideal being white and blond. As this ideal is unattainable for most travestis and Brazilian women who are brown or morenas, many employ some practices to whiten their appearance: smooth and brighten their hair, show off the tan lines from their bikinis when they sunbathe so that people can see how “white” they are, use blue or green lenses, or adopt names of actresses or singers who are “glamorous”, rich, white, and blonde. I expect to work on these issues in further studies. 10 For these and other expressions I keep the original use in Portuguese to emphasize, precisely, the contextual and emic meaning of said terms.
10
ICS
WORKING PAPERS
2014
possible to become a travesti without an already established social network. It is a hierarchical society, based on strong power relations. Travestis are aware they have to face a masculine body. The body should be modified and every straight and angular line (that is, features understood as masculine characteristics) should be rounded. The aim is to achieve curves and smooth expressions, which are considered ideal feminine attributes. The first product they use to sculpt their bodies is hormones. The sooner they start to take them, the better the results they will obtain: breast augmentation, less corporal hair, round figure. Hormones are the first evidence that somebody is a “real” travesti instead of a “man dressed up as a woman”. Hormones are a kind of rite of passage because as soon as they achieve the first feminine shapes, they are assuming a re-birth: they are now facing society as travestis. The next step is to inject industrial and liquid silicone. This is the most irreversible and dangerous of all the procedures. Under Brazilian law, it can be considered a mutilation crime. It is a home-made practice, done by an older and expert travesti (a bombadeira) who injects the silicone through syringes in the places which need to be expanded: buttocks, hips, knees, inner thighs, faces and, increasingly rare, breasts (as nowadays they prefer breast implants). The product is positively valued because it provokes an immediate effect. The injection is done without anaesthetic because it is better to notice if something wrong occurs while silicone is getting into the body. The needle cannot be introduced into an artery: silicone in an artery can cause death. Also possible infections can be lethal. Nevertheless, bodies moulded by silicone are very important within travesti culture. Beautiful travestis already with silicone are the example and the admiration of others that are not so. The frequent question asked among them: “Who made you?”, represents both the power and the prestige of those who have created a good “work”. Finally, cosmetic surgery11 is the last step in the career of the travesti beautification. It is a very expensive practice that many travestis cannot afford. The surgeries most demanded are breast augmentation and rhynoplasty (having a smaller 11
Generally, travestis do not want to undergo genital surgeries. Their desire in keeping their male genitalia makes them desired subjects in the sex industry not only in Brazil but also in Europe.
11
ICS
WORKING PAPERS
2014
nose is the dream of a great number of travestis). Those who can undergo cosmetic surgery are considered “successful” because it is known they have overcome some difficulties to reach it. It is almost impossible for someone who has just arrived to Rio to undergo one of these surgeries. It takes time to save the money they need for it. They also need a certain maturing process, that is, they all know that cosmetic surgery is their final goal for feeling beautiful. Step by step they are aware they have to start taking hormones, followed by the injections of industrial silicone and then, when they are ready, they can think about cosmetic surgeries. It can take a couple of years (or even more) to achieve it. Therefore, those who undertake these cosmetic surgeries are admired not only because they are nearer their beauty aesthetic patterns, but also because they are socially and economically well situated to do it. Travestis’ cosmetic surgeries provide a good example to understand the relation natural/artificial among them. The natural is valued with some physical characteristics such as natural hair and devalued in connection with others: e.g. when they let their corporal hair grow and do not do anything to avoid it. On the other side, artificiality is highly valued because it is a symbol of belonging to the group and, at the same time, it demonstrates the investments done in the process of travestis’ subject construction (Pelúcio, 2007). It is common to hear the word “doll” when they talk about their desires in order to conduct cosmetic surgeries: I wanted a doll´s nose12 (Jennifer). We have the autonomy to fabricate ourselves; I can conduct plastic surgeries ready to look like a doll, as I sometimes look like. Because I have this autonomy, I am beyond the man-woman aesthetic pattern, then, I can be artificial. Moreover, I like being artificial. All what money can provide me, the resources, I use them on me (Reyna).
If nowadays techniques of plastic surgeons tend to achieve more “natural” results, a travesti will be pleased if her new nose is so small as to look artificial. It is the way they have to express the idea: “this is my beautiful nose because I have paid for it”. It is another step towards beauty and social recognition. So, for them, being “natural” is being ugly. According to them, women’s “naturalness” makes them 12
It means when she underwent ryhnoplasty, she desired to achieve “a nose as a doll”.
12
ICS
WORKING PAPERS
2014
(women) careless about their aesthetic appearance. When a woman provokes a travesti saying “I do not have any cosmetic surgery”, one travesti responses, as my research participant stated: “I am seeing you do not have any, ugly woman!” We can see, then, that travestis’ bodies are constructed as a metaphor of morality (Douglas, 1973), that is, they become an evidence of the morality of a person. For example, a person who after years of living as a travesti (meaning one who is not newly initiated) and wears a wig, has hardly taken hormones, and does not have silicone is, for one of my research participants, a “travesti apprentice”. They are usually people who have problems with drugs, are heavily indebted and have other concerns before thinking to spend money on their appearance, and money is required to feel beautiful. Once in Rio de Janeiro, those who want to become travestis, tend to start their processes of body transformation with some immediacy (at least taking hormones and having liquid silicone into their bodies). If changes are not initiated after a certain time, these “travestis” are criticized and judged by the rest. Also do not know how to dress or perform “correctly” a particular way of understanding femininity are a responsibility of the travesti. When starting a serious career to become a travesti (no longer cross-dressers) the goal is to be like a woman and who fails it by not being careful enough, will find the reproach and mockery from the rest. It is easy, then, to recognize a “successful” travesti: one just has to look at her appearance. There are a lot of corporal and aesthetic signs that can demonstrate if a travesti has taken proper care of herself or not. For example, whilst it is acceptable to use a razor blade when a travesti is beginning her transformation, after a couple of years, undergoing a more permanent laser hair removal treatment is desirable. A smooth cheek and jaw are an aesthetic ideal valued positively among them. But, in order to achieve it, it is necessary to have – again- money, since it is an expensive practice. Thus, travestis who could have their beard removed by laser are not only nearer the aesthetic patterns they desire, but also the valued stubble-free skin will act as a display of their socio-economic status. Therefore, feeling beautiful and glamorous is the main goal of travestis. I employ Moreno Figueroa´s (2013) differentiation between being and feeling beautiful,
13
ICS
WORKING PAPERS
2014
stressing beauty as a feeling “produced” by the temporal and relational interaction of the individual and the social. But feeling beautiful is not a banal and hedonistic aim, on the contrary, it is through the body and ideas about beauty that travestis “produce” themselves as subjects. Hence, travestis’ identity is carefully planned, designed and redesigned following the aesthetic tastes they share at a given time. Every transformation they invest on is a step to achieve a feminine body. They want to be like women, but like the most beautiful and glamorous one.
5. Travesti beauty It is, then, important to understand that through their beautification practices travestis are transforming not only their bodies, but also their own identities in the processes of creating new social subjects (Benedetti, 1998). Members of a setting that revolves around physical appearance, beauty situates them in a privileged position within their own social stratum. Hence, they establish certain internal, symbolic and corporal hierarchies that organize them as “successful” or not according to the degree of beauty achieved. This means understanding that it can be read in their bodies a number of indicators that would place them somewhere on the scale of travesti beauty. It can be considered a “successful” travesti someone who feels beautiful because she has looked after regularly (frequently goes to the hairdresser, has their nails and toe nails perfectly done, or eliminates their body hairs by laser), she has also taken hormones, has litres of silicone13 and, ultimately, carries out some cosmetic surgeries (minimally, has a prosthetic breasts). In addition to their body modifications, it is also important to consider that they can exhibit luxurious symbols that demonstrate they are persons “with world”, have good taste, money and distinction. In this paper I did not consider travesti beauty as mere superficiality or faithful reproduction of a certain way of understanding beauty. Travestis’ embodiments are not exempt of a constant fight with the masculine traits that “naturally” emerge when, for example, they interrupt the taking of hormones to maintain their penis erected. It is known that hormones compromise their virility. As most of the time they have to 13
Silicone is measured according to the litres introduced into their bodies.
14
ICS
WORKING PAPERS
2014
penetrate their clients, hormones should be regulated or even eliminated if they need to be “effective” as sex workers. This permanent negotiation between feminine and masculine universes makes the construction of beauty as a reflective process: every physical detail is studied, leaving no random element. And as it was already said, the pursuit of beauty allows travestis to construct themselves as social subjects, because instead of oppressing, beauty empowers them. According to one interviewee in Rio: Frankly, between being a simple woman and a travesti - everyone sees that I am a travesti, a doll - , I prefer to be like a doll, a travesti. I don´t want to pass as a woman, to go unnoticed, no, absolutely not. I really want to succeed, I want to be a tasty travesti, powerful (Reyna).
Travestis are aware that their bodies call more attention than women: their greater stature, prominent buttocks and breasts provoke, together with the way they dress and move, that they do not go unnoticed. Once they feel beautiful, they discover that the capacity they have to draw attention -especially- of men, gives them power as men’s desire reinforces their self-esteem and security. As Samanta affirms: I feel better, I feel good like this through the eyes of men. Because when I was gay they did not look at me. Today as a travesti, I walk out onto the street and I feel them looking at me, desiring me when I step close (Samanta).
Finally, it is necessary to address that, as sex workers, they have to face an atmosphere of high competitiveness as they consider that the most beautiful will work more than the rest. When work is lacking, some travestis usually become more vulnerable and dependent of continuous body modifications. They believe that another litre of silicone into their bodies will make them feel more beautiful and, consequently, more desired within the sex work market. While searching for “perfection”, they engage in an endless process of beautification which gives them a confidence that, in fact, is finite and fragile. Then, although beauty structures their everyday experiences and gives sense to their lives, at the same time it is revealed that, for some of them, their dependency to constantly “improve” their bodies ends up taking them into a spiral dominated by loneliness and failure.
15
ICS
WORKING PAPERS
2014
6. Final reflections It can be rare to talk in the same paper about beauty and death, recognition and persecution, desire and hate. But Brazil is a country of contrasts, as travestis embody themselves the contradictions of a society which maintains a relationship of love and hate towards them (Kulick and Klein, 2003)14. Brazilian travesti sex workers live in a universe of drugs, police and clients’ violence, high HIV vulnerability, general society marginalization and, at this point not surprisingly, (finite) beauty. Each hormone injection and each litre of silicone they introduce into their bodies empower them and reinforce their self-identity. The self-esteem of every travesti is directly related to the level of beauty achieved. The reality they experience as travestis, although it stigmatises them, is different from the moment they face it in heels and with a beautiful body that, at least temporarily, empowers them. Although they experience constraints both to achieve their aesthetic ideals and to build their identities in a society that discriminates against them, travestis as active and beautiful subjects feel powerful and desired. I would like to finish mentioning very briefly two examples of famous Brazilian trans15 models to show the importance of beauty among them and also for some remarkable brands which sell their clothes through trans models: 1) Marcela Ohio, a young national known model, won Miss T Brazil in 2012, a beauty contest for trans people organised by a former travesti, president of the Association of Travestis in Rio de Janeiro. Marcela was also the winner in 2013 of Miss International Queen beauty pageant, as already mentioned, a competition for trans people that is held in Thailand; 2) the daughter of a former Brazilian footballer, transsexual Lea T. also won great international media recognition in 2010 when she became one of the stars of the Givenchy campaign and posed nude for an issue of Vogue magazine. She was living in Milan where she studied veterinary medicine and began working as a model. Currently, she works for big brands both in Brazil and in Europe. 14
It can be said the same in relation to other gender variants as the kathoeys or hijras, as Nada (1990) also pointed out for the last ones. 15 They do not identify themselves as travestis, a category which in the last years is very close related to a specific social class, level of education and, generally, profession (sex work). Rather, they prefer to be called as transsexuals or trans.
16
ICS
WORKING PAPERS
2014
These examples, though, are exceptions. They are trans people with greater family support and they come from middle class backgrounds. They had the opportunity to study and live outside prostitution. They can use expensive clothes, travel and afford easily every cosmetic surgical retouch needed. For the great majority of travestis with whom I interacted, their everyday reality is qualitative different. For them, the narrow border between life and death is constantly visible. They are alone, without any social or family support, facing prostitution, a highly competitive environment, and very common violent situations. Nevertheless, they decided to become travestis beyond the consequences that their election may generate. As Samanta explains clearly to me, S: - After I became a travesti, I believe that discrimination is greater. The society is very hypocritical with travestis, the doors are often closed for us when we are transformed. J: - As gay you were more accepted? S: - The society believed that it was better, but not for me. Then, fuck society, I owe nothing to society, I give my back to society. As a travesti I feel much better, although society wanted me to be gay, as a man. I am brave as to assume myself, to rebel and face society with a skirt.
For travestis, ready to face society with a skirt and on high heels, their willingness to achieve beauty makes them feel desired and, at least temporarily, loved.
References Aizura, A. (2009), “Where Health and Beauty Meet: Femininity And Racialisation in Thai Cosmetic Surgery Clinics”. Asian Studies Review, 33 (3), pp. 303-317. ------------- (2011), “The Romance of the Amazing Scalpel: “Race”, Labour, and Affect in Thai Gender Reassignment Clinics”. In: P. Jackson (ed.) Queer Bangkok. Twenty-First-Century Markets, Media, and Rights, Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press, pp. 143-162. Albuquerque, F. y Jannelli, M. (1996), Princesa, Barcelona, Anagrama. Balzer, C. (2010), “«Eu acho transexual é aquele que disse: “Eu sou transexual!”». Reflexiones etnológicas sobre la medicalización globalizada de las identidades trans a través del ejemplo de Brasil”. In: M. Missé y G. Coll-Planas (eds.), El género desordenado. Críticas en torno a la patologización de la transexualidad, Barcelona y Madrid, Egales, pp. 81-96.
17
ICS
WORKING PAPERS
2014
Bastide, R. (1959), “O homem disfarçado em mulher”, Sociologia do Folclore Brasileiro, São Paulo, Ed. Anhambi, pp. 60-65. Benedetti, M. (2005), Toda feita: o corpo e o gênero das travestis, Rio de Janeiro, Garamond. Butler, J. (2002), Cuerpos que importan. Sobre los límites materiales y discursivos del “sexo”, Buenos Aires, Paidós. Cahill, A. (2003), ‘Feminist pleasure and feminine beautification’. Hypatia, 18 (4), pp. 42-64. Cameron, L. (2006), Sexual health and rights: Sex workers, transgender people and men who have sex with men: Thailand, New York, Open Society Institute. Chapkis, W. (1986), Beauty Secrets, Boston, South End Press. Colebrook, C. (2006), ‘Introduction’. Feminist Theory, 7 (2), pp. 131-142. DaMatta, R. (1997), Carnavais, malandros e heróis: para uma sociologia do dilema brasileiro, Rio de Janeiro, Rocco. Davis, K. (1991), ‘Remaking the She-Devil: A Critical Look at Feminist Approaches to Beauty’. Hypatia, 6 (2), pp. 21-43. ---------------- (2003), Dubious Equalities and Embodied Differences. Cultural Studies on Cosmetic Surgery, Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Denizart, H. (1997), Engenharia erótica: travestis no Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Zahar. Douglas, M. (1973), Pureza y peligro: un análisis de los conceptos de contaminación y tabú, Madrid, Siglo XXI. Duque, T. (2009), Montagens e Des-Montagens: vergonha e estigma na construção das travestilidades na adolescência. Dissertação de Mestrado apresentada ao Programa de Pós-Graduação em Sociologia, Centro de Ciências Humanas, Universidade Federal de São Carlos. Edmonds, A. (2010), Pretty Modern: Beauty, Sex, and Plastic Surgery in Brazil, Durham, Duke University Press. Figari, C. (2009), Eróticas de la disidencia en América Latina: Brasil, siglos XVII al XX, Buenos Aires, Fundación Centro de Integración, Comunicación, Cultura y Sociedad – CICCUS y CLACSO. Gimlin, D. (2007), ‘Accounting for Cosmetic Surgery in the USA and Great Britain: A Cross-cultural Analysis of Women’s Narratives’. Body & Society, 13 (1), pp. 41-60. Goldenberg, M. (2006), “The Body as Capital: Understanding Brazilian Culture”. Archivos em Movimento, 2 (2), pp. 1-21. Green, J. (2000), Além do Carnaval: a homossexualidade masculina no Brasil do seculo XX, São Paulo, Ed. Unesp. Jackson, P. (1999), “Tolerant but unaccepting: The myth of a Thai ‘gay paradise’”. In P. Jackson and N. Cook (eds.), Gender and sexualities in Modern Thailand, Chiang Mai, Silkworm Books, pp. 226-42. ------------ (2011), “Bangkok´s Early Twenty-First-Century Queer Boom”. In: P. Jackson (ed.) Queer Bangkok. Twenty-First-Century Markets, Media, and Rights, Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press, pp. 17-40. 18
ICS
WORKING PAPERS
2014
Jeffreys, S. (1998), “Heterosexuality and the desire for gender”. In: D. Richardson (ed.), Theorising Heterosexuality: Telling it Straight, Buckingham, Open University Press, pp. 75-90. Johnson, M. (1997), Beauty and Power. Transgendering and Cultural Transformation in the Southern Philippines, Oxford and New York, Berg. Kando, T. (1973), Sex Change: The Achievement of Gender Identity among Feminized Transsexuals, Illinois, Charles Thomas Publishers. Kulick, D. (1998), Travesti. Sex, Gender and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes, Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Kulick, D. and Klein, C. (2003), “Scandalous Acts: The politics of shame among Brazilian travesti prostitutes”. In: B. Hobson (ed.), Recognition Struggles and Social Movements. Contested Identities, Agency and Power, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 215-238. MacKenzie, G. (1994), Transgender Nation, Bowling Green, Ohio, Bowling Green State University Popular Press. Mercader, P. (1997), La ilusión transexual, Buenos Aires, Nueva Visión. Moreno Figueroa, M. (2013), “Displaced looks: The lived experience of beauty and racism”. Feminist Theory, 14 (2), pp. 137-151. Morgan, K. (1991), ‘Women and the Knife: Cosmetic Surgery and the Colonization of Women's Bodies’. Hypatia, 6 (3), pp. 25-53. Mott, L. e Assunção, A. (1987), “Gilete na carne: Etnografia das automutilações dos travestis da Bahia”. Temas Imesc, 4 (1), pp. 41-56. Namaste, V. K. (2000), Invisible Lives: The Erasure of Transsexual and Transgendered People, Chicago, Chicago University Press. Nanda, S. (1990), Neither Man nor Woman. The Hijras of India, California, Wadsworth. Ochoa, M. (2014), Queen for a Day: Transformistas, Beauty Queens, and the Performance of Femininity in Venezuela, Durham and London, Duke University Press. Oliveira, N. M. (1994), Damas de Paus: O jogo aberto dos travestis no espelho da mulher, Salvador, Centro Editorial e Didático da UFBA. Parker, R. (1991), Corpos, prazeres e paixões: A cultura sexual no Brasil contemporâneo, São Paulo, Best-Seller. Patrício, M. C. (2008), No truque: transnacionalidade e distinção entre travestis brasileiras. Tese de doutorado apresentada ao Programa de Pós-graduação em Antropologia da Universidade Federal de Pernambuco. Pelúcio, L. (2005), “«Toda Quebrada na Plástica». Corporalidade e construção de gênero entre travestis paulistas”. Campos 6 (1-2), pp. 97-112. ------------- (2007), “‘Mulheres com Algo Mais’ – corpos, gêneros e prazeres no mercado sexual travesti”. Revista Versões, vol. 3, pp. 77-93. ------------- (2009), Abjeção e Desejo: uma etnografia travesti sobre o modelo preventivo de aids, São Paulo, Annablume; Fapesp.
19
ICS
WORKING PAPERS
2014
Peres, W. S. (2005), Subjetividade das Travestis Brasileiras: da vulnerabilidade da estigmatização à construção da cidadania. Tese de doutorado apresentada ao Programa de Pós-graduação em Saúde Coletiva da Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro. Scheper-Hughes, N. (1992), Death without weeping: The violence of everyday life in Brazil, Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press. Silva, H. (1993), Travesti: a invenção do femenino, Rio de Janeiro, Relume Dumará. Silva, H. e Florentino, C. (1996), “A sociedade dos travestis: Espelhos, papéis e interpretações”. In: R. Parker e R. M. Barbosa (eds.), Sexualidades brasileiras, Rio de Janeiro, Relume Dumará, pp. 105-118. Siqueira, M. S. (2004), Sou senhora: Um estudo antropológico sobre travestis na velhice. Dissertação de Mestrado apresentada ao Programa de Pós-Graduação em Antropologia Social da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Stryker, S. (1994), “My Words to Victor Frankenstein above the Village of Chamounix Performing Transgender Rage”. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, vol. 1(3), pp. 227-254. Sullivan, N. (2003), A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. Teixeira, F. B. (2008), ‘L´Italia dei Divieti: entre o sonho de ser européia e o babado da prostitução’. Cadernos Pagu, 31, pp. 275-308. Ünaldi, S. (2011), “Back in the Spotlight: The Cinematic Regime of Representation of Kathoeys and Gay Men in Thailand”. In: P. Jackson (ed.) Queer Bangkok. TwentyFirst-Century Markets, Media, and Rights, Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press, pp. 59-78. Vale, A. F. C. (2005), O Vôo da Beleza: travestilidade e devir minoritário. PhD dissertation, Sociology Department, Ceara Federal University, Brazil. Valentine, D. (2007), Imagining Transgender. An Ethnography of a Category, Durham and London, Duke University Press. Wolf, N. (1991), El mito de la belleza, Barcelona, Emecé Editores. Wong, Y. W. (2005), “The Making of a Local Queen in an International Transsexual Beauty Contest”. Sexualities, Genders, and Rights in Asia. 1st International Conference of Asian Queer Studies, Bangkok, Thailand, pp. 1-13. Young, I. M. (1980), ‘Throwing Like a Girl: A Phenomenology of Feminine Body Comportment, Motility and Spatiality’. Human Studies, 3, pp. 137-156.
20
ICS
WORKING PAPERS
2014
21
Edição . ICS Working Papers Coordenação . Sofia Aboim Design . João Pedro Silva Apoio técnico . Ricardo Pereira
Pest-OE/SADG/LA0013/2013
Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa - Laboratório Associado
www.ics.ulisboa.pt