Travesti and Patriarchy
The right to express one’s gender and/or sexuality freely, comfortably, and without repercussion (as long as one’s sexuality is geared towards consenting adults) is a fundamental human right. However, the LGBTQ community’s rights are some of the least protected around the world. There are countless incidents of discrimination and outright horrendous treatment of people because they identify in a way that does not fit the traditional binary categories of male or female. Travesti, written by Don Kulick, presents detailed accounts of a group of, what Kulick refers to them as, transgender prostitutes in Brazil. Through the accounts of the lives, the reader learns about how sexuality based discrimination is a big issue that has deep roots in patriarchy and our incorrect notions of sexuality and gender.
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| self-describe travesti that was murdered |
The book focuses on the life of a group of people with male genitals who strongly identify as males. These males also just so happen to identify as females. However, their conception of womanhood is through such a heavily patriarchal lens that they use to express how they are better at “being a woman” than those whom society considers women; they call themselves travestis. These travestis are “ … forced into prostitution because they cannot gain employment in any other sector.”[1] Like many other countries, Brazil does not have laws protecting against discrimination against individuals on “… the basis of appearance or sexual orientation.” Once one factors in patriarchy’s opposition to gender non-conformity, it is evident that the travestis are not welcome in society. In fact, “policemen are a major source of violence against travestis.” (Pg. 31) To make matters worse, those who committed violent acts against travestis are not punished because society sees the travestis as “… asking for it, and no one should expect courts to unduly penalize a man just because he shoots travestis in the face.” Essentially, travestis are treated like disposable sex objects and have no real protections under the law.
To understand how patriarchy allows for such a blatant violation of human rights, one must remain cognizant of the deeply imbedded Patriarchy. Although, to even get to the step of Patriarchy, one must recognize that gender is something we are socialized into and actively participate and mold to achieve rather than just purely ascribed. This construction of gender starts with “assignment to a sex category on the basis of what the genitalia look like at birth.”[2] From then on it continues as a social institution with a process of “… creating distinguishable social statuses for the assignment of rights and responsibilities.” Society legitimizes this by continually reinforcing the Patriarchal ideals; however, “gender as a social construction does not flow automatically from genitalia…” Others do not understand that. Instead of trying to get a better grasp on the dimensions of gender/sexuality, people fear it and push it away. Patriarchy allows people to get away with violently ostracizing and assaulting gender non-conformists.
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