The ghost of the hairdresser-whore: gender, work and trans stylists in Cali and San Andrés Isla, Colombia

Abstract

Through a critical approach of intersectionality, this exploratory  ethnographic research analyses the imbrications of gender, class, ethnicity and sexuality in the work trajectories of a transfeminine group of stylists in Santiago de Cali and San Andrés Island, Colombia. The social distances built between diverse actors (gay stylists, rich white heterosexual stylists, heterosexual raizal people, and cisgender clients) create specific meanings regarding work in
the hairdressing salons and its blurred boundaries with prostitution. On one hand the effect of class and cisgender domination hinder social ascending of the caleñas trans women; on the other hand, the ethnic system’s heterosexist taboo prohibits and denies trans femininities as part of the raizal identity.