O caso Dandara: uma leitura acerca de sexo e gênero em Judith Butler

Abstract

This paper will attempt to analyze the study conducted by Judith Butler in her work Gender Trouble. Thus, this is a paper that proposes to analyze a critique of the heterogeneous structure in which we currently live. In this way, two cases will be reported to exemplify what it means to not fit into social norms and their consequences. One case is that of Herculine, a hermaphrodite – a term that is currently incorrect, but I use it because it was the term used in the studies conducted about Herculine at the time; however, the correct term would be intersex – who committed suicide in 1868 after no longer being able to bear the sex and gender roles imposed on her. The other case, which is the main focus of this paper, is that of Dandara Ketlely, a transgender woman who was beaten and murdered in 2017 in the city of Fortaleza, Ceará. Her assault was recorded and shared on the internet. In both cases, a similarity can be seen: death. Although the two cases are 149 years apart, the factor that unites them is that both were people whose lives were dictated by others or who, in trying to be who they wanted to be, were judged and killed. Using these two cases as examples of the treatment society gives to people who do not fit the heteronormative standard we have, this paper will illustrate, through Judith Butler's writings and her theories grounded in the work of other thinkers such as Lévi-Strauss, Lacan, Freud, and others, a critique of this structure and the possibility of having a different one. This paper does not aim to prove the idea of a new structure, to discover the origin of prejudice, or to idealize a different world. It is simply a critical analysis of the structure, highlighting important points that seek justification, as well as refuting them, concerning the discourse that sustains and perpetuates this model to the present day.