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Travestis In Brazil Essay

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In Brazil there are people who choose to be both male and female. People who present and perceive themselves as feminine, yet still hold on to their male genitalia in both its physical and symbolic form. These people are known as travestis. Travesti is a Brazilian Portuguese term deriving from the word tranvestir, which means to cross-dress (Kulick, 1998:5). Yet, travesti individuals do more than just cross-dress. They present themselves as women while still embracing their maleness and homosexual desires, thus subverting traditional gender norms in an a devoutly Catholic country. Although travestis live throughout all of South America, it is in Brazil that they occupy a special social position. While several travestis in Brazil are happy to be living as their true selves, many—if not all—still live at the margins of society and are constantly victimized by health issues and violence.…show more content…
Other ethnographies have explored and discussed travestis in relation to gender (Jayme, 2001; Costa & Sá, 2016), religion (de Jesus, 2010), and the pathologization of “deviant” bodies (Nogueira & de León, 2012). Some, like Don Kulick’s Travesti (1998), capture and present essential aspects for the understanding way of life of this social group. All of these topics are fascinating in the way they add to a locus of visibility where we can base an understanding of how travesti bodies are molded by social and material
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