Brazilian 'Travesti' Migrations

Abstract

Brazilian 'Travesti' Migrations offers a rich and nuanced analysis of the cultures of travestis in Rio de Janeiro and Barcelona. Emerging from a feminist ethics and paying particular attention to embodiment and aesthetics, it tells a moving and often heroic story of gender diverse lives, loves and bodies. This is a wonderful addition to sexuality and gender research.' -Sally Hines, Associate Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies, University of Leeds, UK. 'Vartabedian's fascinating ethnographic account reveals not only how some performances of femininity are valued more than others, but how these performances are simultaneously a way of enacting exoticized versions of Brazilianness. Importantly, she showcases the limitations of eurocentric sex/gender taxonomies for accommodating travesti ways of being and suggests that transgender studies further work to do if it is to interpret travesti lives without doing epistemological violence to them.' -Susan Stryker, Associate Professor of Gender and Women's Studies, University of Arizona, USA, and co-editor, TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly This book analyses the embodied and spatial experiences of Brazilian travesti sex workers who cross both, gender and (trans)national borders. Based on a multi- sited ethnography, it explores travestis' bodily transformations, their involvement in sex work, and the transnational migrations to Europe that many make.