“THE CONQUEST OF FEMININITY”: An intersectional analysis of cross-dresser makeover

Abstract

Abstract: This article aims to understand the way social markers of gender, race and class differences act in the construction of femininities among cross-dressers who starred artistic performances in what once was the most traditional gay club in the capital of Ceará. It also reflects on how these artists’ masculinities are crossed over in their temporary body reconstructions. The ethnographic and anthropological research focused on the last three years of the club. In addition, news from newspapers during its active years were accessed, as well as the personal collection of the nightclub’s cross-dressers and producers. In this sense, it was observed that these body transformation processes highlight in a contumacious manner the constructiveness of genders, in order to destabilize the binary perspectives that view femininity and masculinity in a fixed and expressly natural way. 

 Keywords: Cross-dressers. Makeover. Femininities.