“Yo solo soy”: The processes of corporal transitions of trans students in the Bachillerato Popular Trans Mocha Celis

Abstract

This article appeared as part of a research that investigates the emergence of a school for trans – transvestites, transsexuals and transgender -people in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina: the Bachillerato Popular Trans Mocha Celis. The assumptions of this text are revealed from the testimonies of students who have experienced their processes of identity and body transitions, such as transvestites and transsexuals, and show us their looks on their bodies, their masculinities / femininities and about the reception or not, family and friends. Using the ethnographic methodology, daily living and semi-structured interviews, this qualitative research with five students presents their stories, which allow us to understand how it is to live in a sexually binary (female-male), sexist, heterosexual and compulsorily cisgender. In addition, this research aims to contribute to reflections on the surveillance of bodies that accompany the experiences of trans people, demonstrated in the social rejection of femininity expressed by a body still seen as biologically masculine.