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Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes
by
Don Kulick
In this dramatic and compelling narrative, anthropologist Don Kulick follows the lives of a group of transgendered prostitutes (called travestis in Portuguese) in the Brazilian city Salvador. Travestis are males who, often beginning at ages as young as ten, adopt female names, clothing styles, hairstyles, and linguistic pronouns. More dramatically, they ingest massive dose...more
Paperback, 277 pages
Published
November 15th 1998
by University Of Chicago Press
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Brazilians, on the rare occasions that they speak positively of travestis, those renowned gender-defying generators of much lurid modern folklore and commentary, will celebrate them as a particularly visible representation of societal inversion. While the nation relishes its alleged Carnival-esque ability to undermine and overcome its strict Roman Catholic heritage, Kulick suggests that travestis reinforce rather than invert the traditional cultural views on sex and gender. In his judgment, trav...more
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I may just be lucking out with the anthropological books that I read, but each one has been amazing, Travesti by Don Kulick being no exception. The nuances of sex and gender are usually unknown to the common American, and the differences between the "trans" words, like transgender, transexual, and transvestite are oftentimes confused. In this book Don sheds light on a subculture of transgendered individuals who challenge even the basic understandings that we have on gender, and what he presents...more
I read this one for school and it was definitely one of the more interesting anthropology books I've read. I'd never heard of this subculture before and it was interesting to learn about. Some parts were a bit slow but I enjoyed most of it.
I...really like ethnographies. And gender studies. And, okay, this was a really excellently-done ethnography that has some obvious problems ("transgender"?), but is super engaging.
Kulick's honesty is probably the thing that makes this not just an anthropological tract but an excellent piece of non-fiction writing. Kulick is honest with the travesti with whom he lives, and he's honest with us about his life and how it might affect his perspective on the unusual situation in which he's placed himself. He writes with a maturity and understanding that gives him something better than social-scientific objectivity: the awareness of the inevitable subjectivity of his perspective...more
This book is taboo in almost every culture. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Don's experience and made me very open to the idea that events and people like this exist.
touching book. Read it for a Women's Studies course in college and just really felt for these "women."
A beautifully written ethnography, anthropology lovers will fall in love with this book.
Gave pretty clear context of what Salvador is like in terms of how the city socially accepts to some point transvestis compared to surrounding areas in NE part of Brasil. Very similar conditions to the US.
Simply amazing!
This is a really nicely balanced and respectful ethnography of a fascinating subculture in Brazil. I only wish the author had continued to embrace the subjects' own embodied paradox rather than trying to fit them into a concrete framework at the end, although he did it in an innovative and believable way.
Awesome book. Anthropology of Gender and sexuality professor wrote this, spent time in a travesti brothel in Brazil. Fascinating.
Jun 23, 2007
Cody
marked it as to-read
this book looks so interesting i cant wait to get my hands on it!!
brillante!!
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