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Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent Anthropological Work -- Worth the Read
Review: Don Kulick provides an excellent example of anthropologists dealing with the tough issues of gender and sexuality research. He demonstrates how connected anthropologists become to those they study; and further challenges us to consider closeness, concern, and friendship with our informants as methodologies that speak not only to our own humanity as anthropologists but also to the humanity of our communities of study. I have used this book to teach introduction to cultural anthropology course and it is a perfect blend of theory, narrative, and insight which keeps students engaged and asking the difficult questions of conducting cultural anthropological research. I applaud Kulick and thank him immensely for his work! GET A COPY :) !
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Anthropological Work -- Worth the Read
Review: Don Kulick provides an excellent example of anthropologists dealing with the tough issues of gender and sexuality research. He demonstrates how connected anthropologists become to those they study; and further challenges us to consider closeness, concern, and friendship with our informants as methodologies that speak not only to our own humanity as anthropologists but also to the humanity of our communities of study. I have used this book to teach introduction to cultural anthropology course and it is a perfect blend of theory, narrative, and insight which keeps students engaged and asking the difficult questions of conducting cultural anthropological research. I applaud Kulick and thank him immensely for his work! GET A COPY :) !
Rating: 
Summary: O bicho pegou!
Review: I found this book to be very well written and, in several instances, it made me long to return to my anthropological studies at NYU. Had I only been a curious reader, I probably would have found this book brilliant, but my reading was shaded by the fact that I personally know many travestis in Salvador (Peruco, Xuxuca, Kit Mahoney, Angelica) and therefore found the exclusion of several things to be particularly odd.
The importance of having a basic understanding of the language and culture of a country in order to do fieldwork and understand anything in that country cannot be overstated, and the fact that Professor Kulick went into the "field" totally green must have put him at a significant disadvantage. This disadvantage would explain his cultural missteps and failure to see his "subjects" within the larger Brazilian context. The lack of contextualization is akin to discussing America's obesity problem without discussing the automobile, the microwave, women in the workforce, lack of school physical education programs, etc. A population teeming with 300-lb. people seems very strange indeed when not seen in context.
Though far more thorough than most researchers, it's incomprehensible to me that he barely discusses race/ color and class at all. It's important to note that nearly all travestis are negra (black) and mulata/ morena (brown) and come from the lowest social classes and everyone knows that, in Brazil, the primary contribution that negras and morenas are thought to offer society is their sexual services (mulata é pra transar, branca é pra casar).
It's also strange that there is hardly any discussion of religion and, being a gringo and all, Professor Kulick seems to look down on Candomblé and tries to defend his new travesti friends by asserting that they are not "devotees" of the religion. All of the travestis that I know practice Candomblé, but would never admit it to a prejudiced gringo who doesn't seem to understand the religion anyway. In fact, by ignoring Candomblé, Professor Kulick missed a crucial element in understanding the place of the travesti in society. It is in the terreiro that Brazilians become accustomed to seeing men dressed as women and learn to respect their special status.
This book, though thoughtfully put together, lacks an understanding of Brazilian norms which would have made the work more complete. The knowledge that, for instance, Brazilians are used to mixture (e.g. being culturally/ racially mixed, practicing Candomblé and Catholicism simultaneously) means that travestis are one of many hybrid classes in a highly hybridized nation.
Further, knowing what I know about baiano travestis, I am certain that they would not have allowed Professor Kulick to hang out with them if they didn't consider him to be one of them. It's clear to me in his writing that he greatly enjoyed spending time with the bichada and was "se sentindo" just as much as they were.
Rating:
Summary: How gender transcends categoric definition!
Review: I had the opportunity to read this manuscript before it was published, while taking a class with Prof. Kulick. My criticisms of it then still stand now...though I have in many ways only deepened my respect for the finer points of this work. I thoroughly applaud the way that Kulick attempts to make clear the way in which the travesti gender identity is a complexity of biological definition, social categorization, and personal identification. Certainly, the way in which Kulick has encouraged his subjects to share their understanding of gender and sexuality SO openly may help all gender theorists and anthropologists better take to task gender issues like these. As criticism, the book simply does not contextualize the travesti experience. Kulick mentions little and/or nothing about the outside understandings of travesti identity...or the ways in which the broader categories of Brazilian sexual identity might encourage the development of a travesti individual. As well, Kulick is almost TOO involved with his sources. I am certainly NOT preaching anthropological objectivity here (an impossible task) but felt that about 60% of the dialogue in the book was about Kulick's personal desire to "share" in the travesti experience and/or to be identified as an "insider," something which we could have figured out from a decisive, close-knit, introspection of the travesti culture.
Rating: 
Summary: Philosophized and minutia-exam screaming for condensation
Review: If never visited Brazil, the book projects the culture as high on the bizarre-scale in general, as it delves laboriously into the lives and physical-augmentation practices of transgendered sex-workers. Although on the surface enlightening, it could have taken fewer trees to produce the same somewhat go-nowhere-conclusions, and I found myself more willing to seek out volumes and sources used by the author as references into the study of trans-persons of various stripes. It appeared that the author was too overly imbued with his own gay (and possibly trans-) proclivities for this to serve as an objective sociological study. Perhaps he should write a "sensational" script for the screen. It could be done with minor revisions of the text-format, although I did appreciate his manipulation of phaseology.
Rating:
Summary: probably the only Anthro book to make you laugh...
Review: the disparity between prof. kulick's earnestness towards his subjects and their bleak, frightening world make for great, grand humor, however unintentional. though i have some reservations about kulick's lack of scientific conclusions, i applaud his efforts. i found the descriptions (& gasp, photos!) of the travestis shooting industrial sillicon into their ahem, "pundas" memorable. throughout the book i kept wondering what did the prostitutes think of Kulick? The author gives a few clues, but jezzus!
Rating:
Summary: probably the only Anthro book to make you laugh...
Review: the disparity between prof. kulick's earnestness towards his subjects and their bleak, frightening world make for great, grand humor, however unintentional. though i have some reservations about kulick's lack of scientific conclusions, i applaud his efforts. i found the descriptions (& gasp, photos!) of the travestis shooting industrial sillicon into their ahem, "pundas" memorable. throughout the book i kept wondering what did the prostitutes think of Kulick? The author gives a few clues, but jezzus!
Rating: 
Summary: Another book equating transgenderism with prostitution
Review: The editorial review says it all: "In fact, this may be the most readable and engaging study of transgenderism!" THIS BOOK IS NOT A STUDY OF TRANSGENDERISM. It is a study of TRANSGENDER PROSTITUTION. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING.
And anyway, haven't we written enough about transsexual hookers? Possibly an interesting subject, but how about the TS lawyers, doctors and scientists? Give us a break! Make some effort, skip over the easy score! Please!
Rating:
Summary: Another book equating transgenderism with prostitution
Review: The editorial review says it all: "In fact, this may be the most readable and engaging study of transgenderism!" THIS BOOK IS NOT A STUDY OF TRANSGENDERISM. It is a study of TRANSGENDER PROSTITUTION. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING.
And anyway, haven't we written enough about transsexual hookers? Possibly an interesting subject, but how about the TS lawyers, doctors and scientists? Give us a break! Make some effort, skip over the easy score! Please!
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