“Coming Out” in the Field

In Brazil’s third-largest city, Salvador, live nearly 200 travestis, men who cross-dress and work as prostitutes. They adopt female names, clothing styles, hairstyles, makeup, and linguistic pronouns like “she.” They also ingest hormones and use silicone to acquire feminine bodily features such as breasts, wide hips, large thighs, and expansive buttocks. Such practices might give the impression that these men want to be women or that they consider themselves transgender, but in fact they do not self-identify as women, nor do they desire to undergo sex-reassignment surgery. They consider themselves men – gay men – who desire to have sex with men – non-gay men – and fashion themselves as objects of desire for those men. Brazilians are fascinated by travesties, several of whom have become national celebrities. But the reality for most of them is that they are discriminated against and are poor, living a hand-to-mouth existence, and often dying young from violence, drug abuse, and health problems, particularly AIDS.Swedish anthropologist Don Kulick studied travestis, and believed that several factors helped him gain acceptance in this insular community. One was that they viewed Europeans as more liberal and cultivated than Brazilians, and that he would not have the same prejudices against their lives. Another is that he spoke very little Portuguese so he could not communicate very well, causing them to view him as nonthreatening, and someone who would not condemn them. Finally, Kulick himself was a gay man: “I was, in effect, one of the girls, and I was probably not interested in them as sexual partners. My behavior quickly confirmed that I was not, and after such preliminaries were out of the way, travestis realized that they could continue conversing about the topics – boyfriends, clients, big penises, hormones, and silicone – that occupy their time, without having to worry that I might find such topics uninteresting or offensive.”Previous research on travestis had been conducted by heterosexual women and a Brazilian male researcher who had presented himself as a potential client. These studies focused on their work as prostitutes, but these researchers had not gained access to the travestis’ private worlds. Kulick believes that “coming out” to them as an openly gay man facilitated access to confidences and discussions that may not have been granted as easily to other researchers.

Questions What are the main problems raised in the case study?What kinds of questions would an anthropologist ask?How would you resolve the situation?

Tips:

• The whys and the hows are the most important here. For example: how do you know that these are the problems? How do you know that this is the best solution for the situation? I am not interested in what the thing is because I can read that for myself. Rather, I am interested in how you arrived at your own conclusions and why you think that way.
•  What concepts do the anthropologists draw on, and how can you use that same knowledge to come to a deeper understanding of what’s happening?