“Worked in Women”: a study about body, desire and transvestite prostitution in Fortaleza, Brazil

Abstract

This work takes as its focus of analysis transvestite prostitutes in Fortaleza, Brazil. Are presented
narratives about their body transformations, an experience that includes a set of processes and
experiences. In contrast to conceptions of identity which emphasize coherence and linearity, I
present autobiographical trajectories and reports contextualized by discontinuities. Transvestites
make transformations in their physical shapes, whether with the endorsement of the medicine or
clandestine manner. I understand that the use of these bodies as objects of desire displayed in
the "streets" goes beyond the discussions that permeate Travestiler as a stigmatized reality. In the
field work, I mobilized methodological tools that allowed the apprehension of singularities and
expressiveness concerning the complex experience of trying to "Live as a woman" twenty‐four
hours a day.