Suchergebnisse

Using ethnographic methods, this paper discusses how residents of informal settlements called favelas use creative means to avoid forced eviction in Rio de Janeiro. Favela evictions are justified through a myriad of reasonings: that they harm the environment, breed crime and pollution, and that they are aesthetically unsightly. Proponents of favela removal also justify evictions through the belief that favelas are places without culture or history. Therefore, according to this logic, favelas do not need to be protected or spared from eviction. In response, residents of favelas under threat of eviction have attempted to subvert this narrative by rebranding themselves as heritage and tourism centres. Specifically, this paper explains how certain favela communities have created museums and have initiated tourism projects in order to prove that their communities have cultures and histories worth preserving. The paper also presents the argument that these rebranding activities based on heritage and tourism represent a politics of respectability.

This theoretical essay critically examines and problematises the notion of Indigenous transgender acceptance among the muxe of Mexico and Native American Two-Spirits that is commonly represented in Western social science activist research. Relying on a close reading of works by social scientists within the field of Indigenous studies, I argue that an overemphasis on the historical acceptance of transgender people in Indigenous communities in the literature distracts from the contemporary discrimination that they face within their own communities. Furthermore, I contend that such a congratulatory stance towards certain Indigenous communities without gender binaries ignores how the acceptance of transgender women can be rooted in sexism.