Embodying the European in the mirror: corporeal biographies of Brazilian trans and travestis sex workers in Lisbon

Abstract

The aim of this article is to understand the construction of corporeal biographies of Brazilian trans women and travestis sex workers who travel to Portugal and/or the European continent. By corporeal biographies we mean the entanglement between the process of body modification and the process of social production of subjectivities during their travels through different social, geographical and historical contexts. The analysis is based on data from comprehensive in-depth interviews with fourteen participants, oriented by a sociology of the individual and the body. Mobility to and through Europe proved to be a significant turning point in their life courses, as it led to the accumulation of economic, social and cultural capital, which is transformed into different types of body and symbolic capital. At the same time, transnational mobility changes the heritage of dispositions related to gender expressions and models of femininity, which are differentiated by factors defined by the subject’s body and by generational issues. While geographical transits give substance to different corporeal biographies, they all ultimately converge towards the acquisition of symbolic capital, represented by the embodiment of resources and symbols perceived as aspects of glamour and luxury in the European sex work field.