Abstract
This study aims to analyze biopsychomedical interventions with transgender people. For this purpose, we carried out 35 semi-structured interviews with people who self-identify as transsexuals and transvestites in Brazil and Portugal. The responses of the study participants were systematized according to a thematic analysis, which led to the emergence of the following three main themes: “institutional power”, “expectations of trans-bodies”, and “experiences in health services”. This study demonstrates how some trans people perform bodily modifications to fight the transphobia they experience throughout their lives. In addition, they believe that, by making their bodies conform to each other, they may become more attractive and desirable. The process of cisnormativity is, furthermore, conveyed by the idea present in the answers of some respondents: that having “integrated” bodies means facing less discrimination and that they will, therefore, obtain more satisfactory ways of personally and socially experiencing their identities. This study contributes to a deepening critical reflection on the experiences/exclusions of trans people, especially in the psychomedical context of “normalization” devices. Hence, just as social structures produce and sustain transphobia, the same structures are responsible for combating it.
Highlights
In Portugal, on 9 September 2019, in the city of Almada, Lara Crespo, a Portuguese trans woman committed suicide
Some studies contributed to the social stigmatization of transgender people (e.g., [2,3]) by locating the problem in transsexuals and not questioning or problematizing transphobia
Through the responses of the participants, the impacts of “normalization devices”. On their bodies, and, on their identities, came to be questioned. This problematization stemmed from trans participants linked to activism and from other participants who themselves reflected various contexts and spaces, including many of the questionings that arose precisely from people who referenced their contexts ofpsychomedical interventions
Summary
In Portugal, on 9 September 2019, in the city of Almada, Lara Crespo, a Portuguese trans woman committed suicide. Similar to Gisberta Salce Júnior, was a trans woman and 48 years old and precarious in nature. Living her life on the margins, Lara was constantly exposed to hatred and, endured extreme vulnerability. Lara committed suicide; Gisberta was murdered [1]. Both were targets of the same violence: transphobia. Transphobia is not treated with due attention. Some studies contributed to the social stigmatization of transgender people (e.g., [2,3]) by locating the problem in transsexuals and not questioning or problematizing transphobia. Negative referential frameworks of intervention were produced that, instead of accompanying individuals in making decisions about their identities, served as the gatekeepers of the sex/gender systems [4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
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