Diverging Corpographies: Desired and Prohibited Cities in Transvestite Experiences (Brazil)

Abstract

Based on ethnographic research in two regions of Brazil —São Paulo and Paraíba—, this article reflects on how transvestite and transexual women (MTF - male to female) are present in different urban spaces and how they build forms of resistance in face of the adversities of modern city models and the multiple forms of violence of which they are victims. Their presence on streets, avenues, sidewalks,and squares in urban environments not only contests heteronormative rules but notions of public space, sexual practices, corporalities, and gender. From diverse urban experiences, there is a common project of corporal transformation and social mobility inscribed in an intensive imbrication of trans body and city, producing processes of deterritorialization and reterritorialization.