A gente não tem parada: etnografia e deslocamentos (de) travestis

Abstract

The travestis who work in the sex market reveal a close relation between their activities in these markets and territorial displacement. Studies usually address this subject based on the notions of stratification, status and distinction. Wish basis on the discussion on mobility and travestis, I present an expansion of the notion of displacement in order to highlight it as relation, sense and knowledge in order to understand some of the internal production processes of the travesties. That meant thinking about geographical shifts, but also the travestis' knowledge which derives from not having a safe port, not really belonging anywhere, getting a reference for the next thing, moving on recklessly and traveling to learn. I analyze the various meanings that displacement can reveal about the dynamics of existential movements of travestis, associated with transit activities between cities and places. I have identified evidence of these displacements between Brazilian cities and carried out fieldwork in three of them: São Carlos/SP, Campo Grande/MS e Franca/SP. The ethnographic study helped broaden the understanding and notion of displacement to better understand the displaced dynamics of experiences where mobility, relations and the travestis’ production of the body-gender occur, not as the motivation for the displacements, but in the midst of them.