Paper short abstract:

This paper approaches power relations among trans brazilian women, focusing on “cafetinas” and their “houses of prostitution. From a specific ethnographic case I discuss the forms that the anthropological writing can be carried out in contexts and relationships that are criminalized.

Paper long abstract:

Working with sex workers in the Brazilian context since 2013, I present an analysis of power relations in a specific neighborhood (Jardim Itatinga), where sex work is the main economic activity. Relations with "cafetinas" present an intersectional specificity in the Brazilian context, not really explained by the word "pimping". Also in dialogue with a solid Brazilian bibliography, I argue that these kind of relations can be of support, affective and effective for sex workers to face violence and vulnerability, especially among trans women. Therefore, I propose a political discussion about how ethnography can contribute to decriminalize, aiming to discuss possibilities of ethnographic writing and its political impacts in such cases. In this paper a propose to discuss the following questions: how can anthropological attention and disposition capture the relationship known as pimping, with its nuances? Is it enough to listen and reproduce what is being said? Can the owners of prostitution houses be heard? Which speeches should be selected? More than that, how can they be reproduced facing power inequalities and the criminalization of the interlocutors? How can we explore ethnographic details when the subject is itself criminalized? Finally I propose the discussion about the possibilities of ethnography writing in order to contribute for the decriminalization of the relations that are being studied.