Perpetual motion: Displacement of travestis from an ethnographic perspective

Abstract

Intense mobility is a characteristic observed in the context of travestis who work in sex markets. Studies on the subject usually emphasize that this mobility is related to a project of refinement, social ascension, and greater social, symbolic, and economic well-being, besides serving as a project of transformation and beautification of the bodies. Based on ethnographic work, I argue that, in order to understand the various orders of displacements of travestis, it is necessary to understand such movements as a perpetual motion machine, and not as being determined by imperatives that would necessarily lead to displacements from one place to another in search of something - much less something exceptional. In the observed context, displacements are a way of being in the world. Events occur during the displacements, not because of them.

Practices, themes and problems of anthropology in the present: global perspectives and critical contexts in the contemporary world - a mosaic

“…This is a theme also vividly present in two of the dossiers contained in this issue, which examine the ways in which a considerable portion of the Brazilian population (and beyond) has been vilified and their rights abused. Faced with this scenario, issues of gender and violence and forms of control and mobility (Rodrigues, 2022), as well as issues related to travestis, are examined in diverse contexts and through distinct approaches that mutually enhance one another.…”