The transvestite, the jaguar and the sucuri: reflections on the regime of visibility in the Pantanal, MS

Abstract

This article discusses a regime of visibility based on the experience of a transvestite who lives in the city of Corumbá, MS. The city is located in the Pantanal and borders Bolivia. Through ethnography, it is perceived that the management of visibility in terms of gender and sexuality does not let go unharmed the codes and values of the Pantanal reality, such as, for example, the jaguar and the sucuri, animals spectacularized by the media and hyper Valued by tourists. These animals are understood in the analysis as acting in a cultural-natural way. Through a multidisciplinary theoretical framework, ranging from gender studies to border and pantaneiros, the jaguar and the sucuri are problematized as being performatic and prosthetic. The field reports count on the incorporation and performance of the transvestite with these animals in public events in the city, such as the friendly diversity and carnival. It is concluded that, considering the border and Pantanal reality, the regime of visibility strategically manipulated by the transvestite and by other effeminates/those of the city, put them in a place of social recognition in the face of different groups of City, in addition to producing a valuative differentiation of national identity in the face of another devalued.