Abstract
This article debates how the arrival of a young transexual woman in a female juvenile detention center (Degase) in Rio de Janeiro tensioned and revealed important dynamics, practices and discourses about gender, sexuality, transexuality and rights. Taking Estrela’s arrival as a starting point, we aim to identify the forces that produce and/or make difficult some discussions about gender in this context, as well as to debate the ways Estrela’s body made unstable some certainties about gender, sex and desire. The discussions here come from two different researches developed in the female juvenile detention center where Estrela was, both using the cartographic method and its ethical/aesthetic/political paradigm. In order to follow some processes unrolled by Estrela’s arrival, such as the creation of a group to discuss gender and sexual diversity and Degase’s internal regiment, we discuss how Estrela’s presence demanded actions and strategies to talk about gender from a human right’s perspective, although not without difficulties and challenges.
Juvenile Detention Centers; Gender; Transexuality; Adolescents