Items related to Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian...

Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes (Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, and Culture) - Softcover

 
9780226461007: Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes (Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, and Culture)
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 

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 doses of female hormones and inject up to twenty liters of industrial silicone into their bodies to create breasts, wide hips, and large thighs and buttocks. Despite such irreversible physiological changes, virtually no travesti identifies herself as a woman. Moreover, travestis regard any male who does so as mentally disturbed.

Kulick analyzes the various ways travestis modify their bodies, explores the motivations that lead them to choose this particular gendered identity, and examines the complex relationships that they maintain with one another, their boyfriends, and their families. Kulick also looks at how travestis earn their living through prostitution and discusses the reasons prostitution, for most travestis, is a positive and affirmative experience.

Arguing that transgenderism never occurs in a "natural" or arbitrary form, Kulick shows how it is created in specific social contexts and assumes specific social forms. Furthermore, Kulick suggests that travestis—far from deviating from normative gendered expectations—may in fact distill and perfect the messages that give meaning to gender throughout Brazilian society and possibly throughout much of Latin America.

Through Kulick's engaging voice and sharp analysis, this elegantly rendered account is not only a landmark study in its discipline but also a fascinating read for anyone interested in sexuality and gender.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:
It is wonderful and weirdly fitting that one of the jacket blurbs for this work of social anthropology is by sex educator and former porn star Annie Sprinkle. Just as there is nothing dry or remote about Annie Sprinkle's delivery, there is nothing dry or remote about Don Kulick's. In fact, this may be the most readable and engaging study of transgenderism to surface in years. For seven months in 1994, Kulick lived in a household of "travestis"--Brazilian male prostitutes who live as women. He constantly tape-recorded their casual conversations, whether on the street soliciting customers or in their small rooms in the ghettos of Salvador, and has been able to trace the motivations behind their behavior and body modifications with plausibility and compassion. So absorbing are the details of the travestis' lives, as recounted by Kulick, that the reader can easily miss the author's equally acute analysis of their often bizarre transformations and of what travestis, with their exaggerated performance of "femininity," suggest about the construction of gender in Brazil. --Regina Marler
About the Author:
Don Kulick is Professor of Anthropology at New York University. His published works include Language Shift and Cultural Reproduction (1992), Taboo (1995, with Margaret Willson) and Travesti (1998). He is co-editor of the journals Ethnos and GLQ.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press
  • Publication date1998
  • ISBN 10 0226461009
  • ISBN 13 9780226461007
  • BindingPaperback
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages277
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780226460994: Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes (Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, and Culture)

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780226460994
Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1998
Hardcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

Kulick, Don
Published by University of Chicago Press (1998)
ISBN 10: 0226461009 ISBN 13: 9780226461007
New Soft cover First Edition Quantity: 1

Book Description Soft cover. Condition: New. 1st Edition. NEW BOOK. Seller Inventory # 002516

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 17.50
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.00
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Kulick, Don
Published by University of Chicago Press (1998)
ISBN 10: 0226461009 ISBN 13: 9780226461007
New paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
GridFreed
(North Las Vegas, NV, U.S.A.)

Book Description paperback. Condition: New. In shrink wrap. Seller Inventory # 100-23231

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 19.09
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 5.45
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Kulick, Don
Published by University of Chicago Press (1998)
ISBN 10: 0226461009 ISBN 13: 9780226461007
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
GF Books, Inc.
(Hawthorne, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Book is in NEW condition. Seller Inventory # 0226461009-2-1

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 30.48
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Kulick, Don
Published by University of Chicago Press (1998)
ISBN 10: 0226461009 ISBN 13: 9780226461007
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Book Deals
(Tucson, AZ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. New! This book is in the same immaculate condition as when it was published. Seller Inventory # 353-0226461009-new

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 30.49
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Kulick, Don
Published by University of Chicago Press (1998)
ISBN 10: 0226461009 ISBN 13: 9780226461007
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Wizard Books
(Long Beach, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New. Seller Inventory # Wizard0226461009

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 27.02
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.50
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Kulick, Don
Published by University of Chicago Press (1998)
ISBN 10: 0226461009 ISBN 13: 9780226461007
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
GoldenWavesOfBooks
(Fayetteville, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New. Fast Shipping and good customer service. Seller Inventory # Holz_New_0226461009

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 27.40
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.00
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Kulick, Don
Published by University of Chicago Press (1998)
ISBN 10: 0226461009 ISBN 13: 9780226461007
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
GoldBooks
(Austin, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New Copy. Customer Service Guaranteed. Seller Inventory # think0226461009

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 27.95
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.25
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Kulick, Don
Published by University of Chicago Press (1998)
ISBN 10: 0226461009 ISBN 13: 9780226461007
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Front Cover Books
(Denver, CO, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: new. Seller Inventory # FrontCover0226461009

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 30.55
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.30
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Don Kulick
ISBN 10: 0226461009 ISBN 13: 9780226461007
New Quantity: > 20
Seller:
INDOO
(Avenel, NJ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Brand New. Seller Inventory # 0226461009

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 31.49
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Kulick, Don
Published by University of Chicago Press (1998)
ISBN 10: 0226461009 ISBN 13: 9780226461007
New Soft Cover Quantity: 1
Seller:
booksXpress
(Bayonne, NJ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780226461007

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 39.00
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds

There are more copies of this book

View all search results for this book