Author(s): Wesley Felipe Andrade Assis, Márcia Fonseca de Amorim

Abstract: This study discusses the subject’s view of him- or herself. Specifically, it examines the gaze of subjects who call themselves transvestites, who are treated in this study as subjects, with a focus on their social-discursive construction from the perspective of the self. In other words, we seek to understand how these subjects constitute themselves as beings in the world through materialist discourse analysis. Additionally, we seek to bring elements of the social universe of transvestites from the narratives produced by them, aiming to understand how the coloniality of gender acts on their constitution and to consider the appointments and procedures of exclusion narrated in their experiences. We used the following to support the proposed reflections: studies by Pêcheux (1995, 2014) and Orlandi (2012) on subject-discourse-ideology; Foucault's concept of discursive formation and the will to truth (1996, 2008); Butler’s (2021) work on hate speech; and Butler’s (2003), Bento’s (2011), Jesus’ (2012), Louro’s (1997), Nascimento’s (2021) and Vergueiro’s (2012) examinations of gender and sexuality. This study provides a better understanding of how transvestites constitute themselves as subjects in society due to the subversion of gender coloniality, the acts of violence they face, and the social erasure they suffer because they do not adapt to a crystallized imaginary of the body.

Keywords: Gender, narratives of the self, transvestility.

Article Info: Received: 03 May 2024; Received in revised form: 05 Jun 2024; Accepted: 13 Jun 2024; Available online: 21 Jun, 2024

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.93.41