Cisnormatividade e presenças trans em universidades públicas da Bahia

Abstract

Most societies have built fixed views about concepts that are naturalized in everyday life, among them, the gender concept. Transgender people, who do not identify with the gender assigned at birth, subvert this binary logic, being the target of marginalization and violence in different contexts, including the educational context. Based on theoretical dialogues between Symbolic Interactionism, Southern Epistemologies, and Queer Theories, this thesis analyzes the presence of trans people in two universities in Bahia regarding the cisnormativity that affects them. Cisnormativity is an imposition of cisgeneracy as the "natural" and "adequate" gender expression in society, violating other forms of gender identity expression. Considering the importance of studies on the presence of transgender people in educational environments, with emphasis on higher education, this research wanted to contribute to the understanding of the academic trajectories of transgender people, as well as the impacts of these themes and people in the university context. Therefore, based on the qualitative approach, data were produced by comprehensive interviews with trans people and also using notes from the research field diary. The results were built on my trajectory as a cisgender researcher who deconstructed herself throughout the research, recognizing mistakes and exotifications towards trans people, as a result of this cisgeneracy. The data from the interviews allowed us to see that the university is a reproducer of silencing and violence against trans people, not promoting quick answers for bureaucratic changes to respect the social name or the difficulties in using the bathrooms and other spaces. At the same time, it is a contradictory and potential ground for the deconstruction of this entrenched cis norm by fostering meetings between trans people who help each other to remain while inviting cis people to review their ideas and attitudes, even with resistance. In this way, I consider that the greatest impact of the research was on my academic and life trajectory, recognizing the limitations of my work and possibilities for future studies, highlighting cisnormativity as the oppression that walks with other oppressions towards a standardized world, a world that is affected in the encounter with other forms of existence and, therefore, can reconstruct itself.