"Lá em casa é diferente" : uma etnografia das relações conjugais entre travestis de Belo Horizonte (MG)

Abstract

From the early twentieth century anthropological research has complexified understanding of gender relations and sexuality in the world we live in. Ethnographic work with travestis in Brazil pointed a relationship between sex, gender and sexuality that underlies the notion of identity of these people, causing them to promote permanent changes in their bodies. Relations between travestis and men that keep love relationships with them is crossed by a specific understanding of body, gender and sexuality that is not shared by the majority of population. In the marital context of travestis and their husbands, the gender identity of each of them determines a relationship between different where, considering their gender performativities, the travesti assumes the feminine gender and the man assumes the masculine. The heteronormative character of relations is contrasted by the social discrimination that couples suffer for being socially recognized as homosexuals. Public opinion about the travestis linked to the naturalization of bodies from the genitals creates situations in which sexuality and gender, both of travestis as their husbands, are constantly challenged in public. The trajectory of these people are the foundation of contextual construction of performatise gender. Relations between travestis and men that are socially recognized as heterosexual males shed light on the contextual nature of gender construction among the people of our society. The practices of travestis question the naturalized body and the gender binarism, putting into question the foundations of a society which sets heterosexuality and gender as consequence of biological sex as social norms. In this work, the marital dynamics of three couples are analyzed