Abstract

DAVI, Edmar Henrique Dairell  and  BRUNS, Maria Alves de Toledo. Phenomenological and Existential understanding of the transvestite experience. Rev. NUFEN [online]. 2017, vol.9, n.3, pp. 57-77. ISSN 2175-2591.  http://dx.doi.org/10.26823/RevistadoNUFEN.vol09.n03artigo14.

This text aims at understanding the meanings and senses that a sex worker transvestite attributes to the transformation of her corporeity through her life´s journey and to the construction of her travesty. Seeking the perfect body, transvestites cross gender boundaries and subvert the senses of self-care to cater the sex market´s logic. Aiming at investigating this phenomenon, we explored the ideas of philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and exploring the phenomenological method, we found the support to analyze and understand the experience of a 25 year old transvestite. This life story analysis indicated the following units of senses: gender experience in childhood; discovery of sexuality; corporeity construction; and trans world experiences. The conclusion is that the transvestite experience ruptures binary gender boundaries and that the resulting corporeity is an open meaning knot to new understandings.

Keywords : Transvestites; Body; Phenomenology; Merleau-Ponty.

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