Menu Expand

Beauty that Matters: Brazilian Travesti Sex Workers Feeling Beautiful

Cite JOURNAL ARTICLE

Style

Vartabedian, J. Beauty that Matters: Brazilian Travesti Sex Workers Feeling Beautiful. Sociologus, 66(1), 73-96. https://doi.org/10.3790/soc.66.1.73
Vartabedian, Julieta "Beauty that Matters: Brazilian Travesti Sex Workers Feeling Beautiful" Sociologus 66.1, , 73-96. https://doi.org/10.3790/soc.66.1.73
Vartabedian, Julieta: Beauty that Matters: Brazilian Travesti Sex Workers Feeling Beautiful, in: Sociologus, vol. 66, iss. 1, 73-96, [online] https://doi.org/10.3790/soc.66.1.73

Format

Beauty that Matters: Brazilian Travesti Sex Workers Feeling Beautiful

Vartabedian, Julieta

Sociologus, Vol. 66 (2016), Iss. 1 : pp. 73–96

13 Citations (CrossRef)

Additional Information

Article Details

Pricing

Author Details

Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon. Avenida Professor Aníbal de Bettencourt 9, 1600-189 Lisbon (Portugal)

Cited By

  1. A Biopolítica da Beleza: Cidadania Cosmética e Capital Afetivo no Brasil

    Jarrín, Álvaro | Ribeiro, Vera

    2023

    https://doi.org/10.7476/9786557082102 [Citations: 0]
  2. The Aesthetic and Political Practices of Trans Women in Peru

    Thinking with and from Skins: Reflections on Methodology and Method in Ethnographic Research from the Encounter and Collaboration with Trans Women in Lima, Peru

    Patiño Rabines, Paola

    2023

    https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42816-6_3 [Citations: 0]
  3. Brazilian 'Travesti' Migrations

    Brazilian Travestis and the Beginning of Our Encounters

    Vartabedian, Julieta

    2018

    https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77101-4_3 [Citations: 0]
  4. “Be the Dream Queen”: Gender Performativity, Femininity, and Transgender Sex Workers in China

    Tsang, Eileen Y. H.

    International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol. 18 (2021), Iss. 21 P.11168

    https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182111168 [Citations: 0]
  5. Bodies and desires on the internet: An approach to trans women sex workers’ websites

    Vartabedian, Julieta

    Sexualities, Vol. 22 (2019), Iss. 1-2 P.224

    https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460717713381 [Citations: 16]
  6. HIV-related care for transgender people: A systematic review of studies from around the world

    Vaitses Fontanari, Anna Martha | Zanella, Gabriel Ibarra | Feijó, Marina | Churchill, Siobhan | Rodrigues Lobato, Maria Inês | Costa, Angelo Brandelli

    Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 230 (2019), Iss. P.280

    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.03.016 [Citations: 43]
  7. Factors Associated with Transgender-Based Discrimination Among Travestis and Transgender Women in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Razek, Layla | Henry, Richard S. | Jalil, Emilia M. | Friedman, Ruth K. | Derrico, Monica | Fernandes, Biancka | Moura, Isabele | Veloso, Valdilea G. | Grinsztejn, Beatriz | Thombs, Brett D. | Luz, Paula M.

    Transgender Health, Vol. (2023), Iss.

    https://doi.org/10.1089/trgh.2023.0002 [Citations: 0]
  8. Transgender health: on a world scale

    Connell, Raewyn

    Health Sociology Review, Vol. 30 (2021), Iss. 1 P.87

    https://doi.org/10.1080/14461242.2020.1868899 [Citations: 17]
  9. Transgender Archipelagos

    David, Emmanuel

    TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, Vol. 5 (2018), Iss. 3 P.332

    https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-6900724 [Citations: 13]
  10. Civilizing the Other: Beauty, Intimate Labor, and Affective Encounters in Berlin’s Brazilian Waxing Studios

    Lidola, Maria

    Cadernos Pagu, Vol. (2021), Iss. 63

    https://doi.org/10.1590/18094449202100630002 [Citations: 0]
  11. Mental health and challenges of transgender women: A qualitative study in Brazil and India

    Gomes de Jesus, Jaqueline | Belden, C. Micha | Huynh, Hy V. | Malta, Monica | LeGrand, Sara | Kaza, Venkata Gopala Krishna | Whetten, Kathryn

    International Journal of Transgender Health, Vol. 21 (2020), Iss. 4 P.418

    https://doi.org/10.1080/26895269.2020.1761923 [Citations: 24]
  12. Brazilian 'Travesti' Migrations

    On Bodies, Beauty, and Travesti Femininity

    Vartabedian, Julieta

    2018

    https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77101-4_4 [Citations: 0]
  13. Childhood Maltreatment Linked with a Deterioration of Psychosocial Outcomes in Adult Life for Southern Brazilian Transgender Women

    Fontanari, Anna Martha Vaitses | Rovaris, Diego Luiz | Costa, Angelo Brandelli | Pasley, Andrew | Cupertino, Renata Basso | Soll, Bianca Machado Borba | Schwarz, Karine | da Silva, Dhiordan Cardoso | Borba, André Oliveira | Mueller, Andressa | Bau, Claiton Henrique Dotto | Lobato, Maria Inês Rodrigues

    Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, Vol. 20 (2018), Iss. 1 P.33

    https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-016-0528-6 [Citations: 9]

Abstract

Drawing on my fieldwork experience with Brazilian travesti1 sex workers in Rio de Janeiro, I argue that travestis’ desire for beauty both structures their daily experiences and empowers them. Travestis have to engage with a complicated, dangerous and expensive career in order to construct their identities. The attainment of a beautiful body is at the heart of their interest. Travestis seek a sense of ‘perfection’, that is, they strive to be like women, but beautiful and desirable ones. Their aim is to create bodies that can achieve feminine and glamorous shapes. Every bodily improvement reinforces their self-identity and status within the group. Although their lives can be very hard – it is difficult to be a travesti in Brazilian society, which is rather intolerant of sexual and gender diversity – it is through the processes they engage in to produce beautiful and feminine bodies that travestis give meaning to their existence and find a place for themselves in their communities and in the world, despite that place being uncertain and marginalised. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, the article focuses on the embodied experiences of a group of Brazilian travestis. Instead of considering travestis’ beauty as a mere imitation of normative femininity, my goal is to redefine beauty in relation to its capacity to create identities and subjects who feel empowered and desired. Finally, travestis’ creation of agency through beauty is analysed against the background of heteronormativity and ongoing transphobic violence in Brazil.