Transgender Book Reviews

Travesti
Nonfiction by Don Kulick
Copyright 1998, 269 pages (with photographs)
University of Chicago Press
ISBN 0-226-46100-9

Capsule: Taking a sociologist's under-the-microscope approach, Don Kulick spends a year living among Brazilian homosexual, crossdressing prostitutes. He portrays them as a society-within-a-society, comes to some unconventional conclusions, and does a lot of thinking about Brazilian sexuality versus that of other countries.

Full review

This book is more scholarly than some might like -- it's a sociologist's take on a group of society's rejects who band together to survive.

As the author puts it, "I was riding [while visiting Salvador, Brazil] ... on a bus. ... I noticed a number of scantily-clad figures ... talking and laughing and clearly looking out for customers to pick them up for sex ... many of them seemed to lack breasts ... and their voices were definitely not women's. Although I had no plans to do fieldwork in Brazil ... the figures on the corners intrigued me."

The fact that the author is gay is an asset as he devotes a year to living with these prostitutes in one of the poorest sections of Salvador. He hangs out with the travesti (as they are called), records their conversations (many of which appear in the book verbatim), asks them pointed yet friendly questions, and tries to delve into their reality.

Early on, he learns that "Travesti find themselves obligated to continually reassert their rights to occupy urban space." Most of them share a common background: growing up with feminine sensibilities, having an early homoerotic experience (being penetrated), being kicked out or rejected by parents, accidentally meeting a travesti, liking what they see, and joining the "life."

However, there's nothing romantic about the life. The travesti rob their clients, inject silicone and take hormones to make their bodies more womanlike, are beaten up, live in postage-stamp-size rooms, can only hold boyfriends by giving them money and gifts, get AIDS, grow old, sometimes become drug-addicted, and rarely have financial security. They steal from each other, fight over boyfriends, and feel unloved.

But author Kulick finds that they share a sharp perception of their reality (for one thing, they don't claim to be women). Also, they make much more money at prostitution than they would otherwise, sometimes enjoy their sexual experiences, and are able to express their femininity.

Yet, and here is where the book seems most valuable, the travesti phenomena is a result of Brazil's sexual mores and gender traditions. Despite the image many have of a free-spirited, wide-open Brazil (Carnival comes to mind), the everyday reality is much different. This is the Brazil where gays and lesbians are mostly underground, and heterosexuality is exalted. Yet, as everywhere, there are "regular" men who are turned on by women with cocks.

The author wonders why gender-bending takes the form of travesti in Brazil, where feminine men keep their penises and become prostitutes, while men with similar traits in the Northern Hemisphere often choose surgical sex changes. Perhaps it's because in Brazil gender is determined by whether one wants to penetrate or be penetrated, while up north gender is usually determined by whether one has a penis or a vagina.

Contradictions abound. Travesti have penises, but despise men who act like women. If a live-in boyfriend asks (after having been the penetrator in the sex act) to be penetrated by a travesti, he is typically cast out. The show has been ruined.

Kulick's descriptions of travesti injecting silicone -- as much as several liters -- is bound to turn a few stomachs.

The author takes issue with some other sociologists' takes on travesti and about prostitution in general. In particular, he is intrigued that travesti have found ways to exert power over their lives and their customers, and have found ways to exist in a threatening environment.

(Reviewer: Valory Gravois) (Copyright ©1999 by Alchemist/Light Publishing)

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