Discrimination at work
One of the key features of transvestism in a country like Costa Rica is that, for individuals who feel the urge to dress in women's clothing, prostitution is essentially the only avenue open to them.
In other words, they are pushed inexorably towards the sex trade by the lack of viable work alternatives. For example, if a transvestite could work in a store or office while dressed in drag, she would be less likely to turn to prostitution. A case in point is Lulu, who worked for a time as a secretary, having convinced her manager that she was in fact a woman:
I was really happy because this was the first time that I was making an honest living, with a real job. The boss didn't know I was a man. At first I didn't really know how to use the typewriter, but after a while I picked it up and then my job was to type in application forms and so on. The trouble started with the clients. They were always inviting me out to have a drink. But I would always say 'no', just to make sure that no one found out that I was really a man. But one day a driver from work followed me home, and then the next thing I knew he showed up at my house and said that he knew that I was as transvestite and that he'd like to have a fling with me. I told him that I was just a secretary and please don't come to my house any more. At that point he started to get nasty, but he finally left after I told him to bugger off. Anyway, the next day I find out that he's told the boss, who promptly gave me the pink slip. So that was 85
that, and before you knew it I was back to turning tricks again.
In similar fashion, Pandora also feels that her involvement in the sex trade is largely due to the fact that it has been the only option open to her since she was a child, almost as if dressing in drag and turning tricks went hand in hand.
Finally, one might usefully consider the case of Karina, whose experience is the exception that proves the rule. In short, she is so effeminate that she can easily pass for a woman, and so she has had no difficulty in finding - and keeping - jobs while dressed in drag. As such, she has had no need to turn to the sex trade as a means of supporting herself.
The money doesn't go far
For the most part, the transvestites interviewed are characterized by low levels of education. Not only have they on average spent a mere 7.4 years in an educational institution, but as many as one third of them (36%) have no schooling at all beyond the primary level. Moreover, since almost none have learned a trade outside of hairstyling, there is very little potential for them to find meaningful, fulfilling work in their adult lives.
Still, transvestite sex trade workers enjoy wages that, at first blush, would appear to place them in the lower middle class income bracket. In 1990, 59% reported earning a monthly income of between 15,000 and 35,000 colones, while 27% said that they earned less than 15,000 colones and 14% more than 35,000
colones.
However, the fact that more than a quarter of them are making less than 15,000 colones a month, barely a subsistence wage, is disturbing. Out of these earnings, not only must they pay for their food, housing and clothes, but in many cases they hand over a portion to their families as well.
What does it mean to belong to such a poor sector of society?
When I asked this question of Karla, she replied, 'being thirsty, seeing a bottle of ice cold Coke, and not being able to buy it.' The transvestites of the Libano district had to content themselves with being surrounded by the middle classes, while being unable to attain such status themselves.
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As Louisa put it, 'being poor means being obsessed about money all the time. It's like a drug really. How can I get some? How am I gonna keep it coming?' For others, it is like having the wrong passport, being an illegal alien in one's own country, and thereby becoming, in the words of Cleopatra 'like Indians in the twentieth century, with people hoping you're just going to disappear some day.'
Indeed, making matters worse for many of the transvestites is the fact that they have access to the world of wealth and riches through their television set; they can sit in front of it while the host of a cooking show advises them only to buy fresh fruits and vegetables.
'Just imagine how I felt,' Chepa recounted, 'when 'Arlene' [a cooking programme] started groaning about how expensive shrimp were getting. This bothered her so much, she said, that she suggested we only use a quarter kilo in the recipe.' Curious, I asked her how she handled this. She answered: 'Well, seeing that I don't have a fucking dime to buy shrimp with, I decided to cut back instead on the sweet peppers I was using in their place.'
For Ana Yanci, she feels the greatest sense of being poor when she goes to the corner store. 'This one time I went to buy some stuff with the money I'd made the night before, and when I got to the counter I realized that I didn't have quite enough to pay for the beans and butter, so I asked the guy, "could I put this on my tab?"
"Sure, baby," he answered, "just spread your legs so that I can stick my pen up your tab.'
The johns, for their part, tend not to be particularly generous either:
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Hey there sugar, what would you charge to take me up to the sky?
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Well, my dear, that depends. You can get to the sky many ways. What I have to know is how you want to get there, because this flight doesn't come cheap.
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The only way I've gone is by bus. What sort of service are you offering that you're so expensive?
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A trip to Miami for two thousand colones. For this price you'll go first class, and be well-looked after by your truly.
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What a swindler! It's not as if this is your first trip! I'm sure your motor's seen better days.
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Okay, enough already. You don't have the face of a virgin either. Two thousand colones for the works. Take it or 87
leave it.
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No, baby, listen to me. I'll give you a thousand but I just want a hand job. I don't want a fuck or anything, understand?
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Yeah, whatever. This is low season and I've got a couple openings in my calendar, so I'll give you the discount, but only today...
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Yeah, okay, sounds good. But what's this about openings?
The only ones I see are where you've got teeth missing.
Getting a raise
However, despite the grim picture painted above, it should be emphasized that some transvestites did experience some improvement in their standard of living in the early 1990s. The slow shift towards street prostitution, and away from the 'bunker'
system of the past, afforded transvestites with the opportunity to increase their take-home pay. Moreover, in the street the latter were better placed to develop relationships with middle and upper class clients, who were themselves able to pay a higher price for sex.
'I'll tell you why the rates went up,' declared Tirana, 'it's really very simple. It's due to a process of globalization, with transvestites suddenly becoming the in-thing after Hollywood discovers us and starts making movies about our lives. Then, next thing we know there's more and more rich johns coming down here, wanting to make it with a transvestite themselves.'
Troyana, for example, only goes out twice every seven days, with Fridays being the best day of the week, and the 15th and 30th ( ie.
pay days) being the best days of the month. On these occasions, she generally turns four or five tricks during the course of the night, and she is always direct with her clients: 'I ask them if they want to give me a blow job, or do they want me to blow them? Do they want to fuck me, or am I gonna fuck them? Or do they want the whole works?'
The rate charged depends upon the type of car the john is driving.
For an expensive model, full intercourse costs between 5,000 and 8,000 colones39, while oral sex ranges from 1,500 to 2,500 colones.
39
In 1997, an American dollar was worth approximately 245 colones.
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Meanwhile, for a less expensive make of car, the rate is 3,000 to 4,000 colones for full sex, and 1,000 to 1,500 for a blow job.
Should the client ask for anything extra, he must pay for it.
Typical requests include borrowing the transvestite's clothes, or having make-up put on. Sessions can last anywhere from one hour to an hour and a half, with every additional half hour costing 2,500
colones.
Like all the transvestites interviewed, Troyana does not know exactly how much she earns each month, but believes her take-home pay to be between 40,000 and 50,000 colones.
Miriam, meanwhile, is known among her colleagues as one of the few transvestites who actually manages to save a portion of her wages, something seldom encountered in the gay sex trade.
That is to say, among male prostitutes money is won and lost in quick succession, with individuals generally being unaware of their relative earnings over time40. Many of course feel that the money they make in the sex trade is ill-gotten, and thus spend it quickly in order to ease their own sense of guilt. Moreover, as has already been touched upon above, this money is typically spent on luxury items and is rarely invested or saved for future contingencies.
Miriam, from this perspective, is a case apart, having as she does a very keen sense of her savings and earnings. This, she attributes to the fact that she loves money: „If someone told me there was five thousand colones lying at the bottom of a cliff, I'd find a way of going down there and getting it.' For the most part, she goes out to work every night, turning an average of five tricks each time, though 'sometimes I'll go out and won't make a dime, won't even be given the time of day.' Still, she claims to make between 95,000 and 100,000 colones in a poor month, and that her average monthly salary is as much as 150,000 colones, of which she invests roughly half.
Like her colleagues, she spends about an hour with each client, for which she charges 5,000 colones, or 2,500 to 3,000 colones if oral sex is all that is desired. Special requests, as always, cost extra.
Meanwhile, Colirio also reports seeing an average of five clients 40
Jacobo Schifter, La casa de Lila: un estudio sobre la prostitución masculina, San José, Editorial ILPES, 1997.
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per night and, like Troyana, sets her rates according to the type of car the john drives: 'Generally, if they pull up in a Mercedes I'll charge them more. But if they seem nice, and treat me well, I'll sometimes go easy and give them a break.'
On average, however, she charges between 6,000 and 7,000
colones for intercourse, and 2,500 and 3,000 for blow jobs. Also like many of the others, she does not keep records of her earnings:
'No, I don't really keep track, but on a good day I clear about ten thousand colones, and on a really good day maybe twice that.
She is also asked from time to time to participate in sex shows with another transvestite, or with a ' zorra' (gay male prostitute who dresses in men's clothing). For these, which are usually put on either for a single client or for a couple, she charges between 15,000 and 20,000 colones, with any additional services costing extra.
Moreover, Elena notes as well that she will sometimes get a john who will pay her from 10,000 to 20,000 colones over the course of one night and, though she admits that this is quite rare, there have even been occasions when she has been paid 30,000 or, once, 85,000 colones for a single night's work.
However, by the same token several interview participants indicated that, in the transvestite community, there is a tendency to exaggerate earnings as a way of enhancing one's image. Thus, while media accounts of transvestite prostitution in San José have reported monthly earnings ranging from 350,000 to 400,000
colones, such figures are described as highly overblown by transvestites like Miriam, who is among the city's highest earners.
Price-cutters
Among the reasons for the wide variation in the rates transvestites charge their clients is the practice of “hacer cuechas” (spitting), or price cutting. Few are held in higher contempt by their colleagues than those who engage in such rate-cutting. To cite Elena, „in the ten blocks that we work, you‟ll see everything: hot bodies, good make-up jobs, exotic looks, expensive wigs, the works. The transvestite who charges less undermines all this, and makes us lose clients.‟
In effect, cuechas involve charging a discounted rate for the same service: 1,500 to 2,000 colones for intercourse (the usual price is 90
5,000 colones), and 500 colones for oral sex.
Little positive is said about those who give cuechas. Miriam, for one, describes them in the following terms: „They‟re dicks without eyes. I charge my clients five thousand colones while they‟re taking them on for five hundred ... they‟re just looking for a place to shoot their wad, they‟re not selective at all. I wouldn‟t even say that this is competition, it‟s merely a question of standing there, offering oneself, and being lucky.‟
Elena feels the same way: „There‟s always someone who‟ll undercut you and this is the worst sort of competition. I had a client once who left me for someone who cut her rates ... it didn‟t bother me though, it wasn‟t because of me he left.‟
Despite ' cuechas' the money is better
In Mabé‟s opinion, she is earning considerably more from prostitution now than she was in the past. However, as she put it,
„the johns pay more but at the same time they want women who are more beautiful. There‟s no way they‟d go for the sort of she-monsters who hang out around the Libano cinema. Now they want transvestites who look like movie stars.‟
That there is more money flowing through the transvestite community is obvious. In place of the cheap clothes, wigs and make-up of the past, the transvestites are wearing outfits imported from the United States, wigs made from real hair, professional make-up and expensive perfume. Moreover, transvestites like Pili have even been able to afford the luxury of silicone breast implants: „These tits cost me a fortune. I used to inject hormones but finally decided to have surgery instead.‟ As for Corella, she has had her hair removed, her nose straightened and her teeth whitened, while Marlene has invested in liposuction in order to improve the look of her waist.
Needless to say, recent changes in transvestites‟ physical appearance are closely related to the johns‟ growing appetite for glamorous „women‟. Like Mabé, Lulu reports that her clients want prostitutes who remind them of movie stars. „However, Costa Rican women are all small with big hips. Only men who are tall and thin can give them the sort of phenomenal body they‟re looking for.‟
Thus, when one looks at a transvestite like Sharon, one sees a 91
woman who is very tall, with the sort of body that would be at home on a catwalk. „Look, the bottom line is that there‟s no middle class hooker out there who looks as glamorous as me. Men turn around to look at me, whether they‟re into transvestites or not,‟ she said with pride. Angelita, meanwhile, feels that the competence of female sex trade workers is generally „very low‟.
As she put it, „the prostitutes are all old and fat, they‟ve got children, and they come cheaply.‟
Transvestites have masculine desires
It should be emphasized that it is not merely on account of their physical appearance that the transvestites deem themselves to be superior to the female prostitutes, but also, paradoxically, by virtue of the fact that they are men. In short, they feel that their male gender gives them particular insight into the bodies and desires of their customers. Thus, Penelope stressed that she knows what men want and, „because I‟m a man, I touch men differently.‟ That is to say, she believes that female sex trade workers do not know how to engage in oral sex, masturbate or penetrate men in the way that the men themselves would like. Moreover, they don‟t know „how a man wants them to talk, to respond, or to act in bed.‟ A similar view is expressed by Lola, who argues that „a guy doesn‟t have to tell me what he‟d like me to do. Since I‟ve got a body just like his, I know exactly what to do to drive him wild.‟
Of course, it bears emphasis as well that the transvestite is not merely selling the sex act itself, but also something of a „show‟.
Thus, many will model themselves, put on an act or sing for the client before they engage in physical contact. Knowledgeable of men‟s wishes and desires, they can exploit these as a way of earning thousands of extra colones, while the client has the opportunity of having his most secret fantasy fulfilled. For instance, Eva charges 10,000 colones to pretend she is a nanny who is about to be raped by her man of the house. Esther, meanwhile, plays the part of Marilyn Monroe, even going so far as to dress herself up in a manner similar to that of the famous Hollywood icon. As for Kristina, she puts on a show in which she pretends to be Gloria Estefan, charging her clients 13,000 colones each time. Finally, Fresa likes to play the role of a nun, and even has a habit and rosary on hand to make her act seem more realistic.
Still, despite this apparent bonanza, few transvestites have managed to improve their position in life as a result.
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As we will see in the next chapter, drug addiction robs them of much of their earnings, as do their lovers and the police.
Moreover, by the time they are old enough to appreciate the importance of saving a portion of their earnings, they are usually too old to be deemed attractive by the johns. Thus, at the end of the day their dreams of fame and riches pass them by, and they are left to die of AIDS in the same neighbourhood they had left ten years previously, holed up in one of the grim „bunkers‟ around the Libano cinema.
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7
Drugs
That so many of the transvestites consume drugs should not be particularly surprising. If we were the ones prostituting ourselves in their place, receiving the taunts, the attacks and the insults that they do on a daily basis, we would surely resort to drug abuse ourselves, as a way of insulating ourselves from the homophobic culture that surrounds us.
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Why do you use drugs, Pepa?
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Standing on a corner by myself, waiting to see who‟s going to pass by and not knowing who it‟s going to be, if I‟m going to end up raped, stabbed or dead, makes me feel extremely anxious. Every time a car goes I don‟t know if I‟m going to be pelted with shit or invited to go dancing.
It‟s like being Cinderella, but in reverse. I don‟t know whether I‟ll end up marrying the blue prince or some old fart. Anyway, it‟s because of this that I feel the need to get stoned. When I‟m really ripped, and people start shouting obscenities at me, all I can hear are praises: 'shit-faced whore' becomes 'beautiful rose'; 'butt-fucking dog' becomes
'what a lovely hat'; 'demon seed' becomes 'sweet pea' and, in the end, I couldn't care less what they're yelling. Or, if they throw a stone at me, I pick it up and it looks just like a sweet little flower; a bag of piss sprayed on me feels like a blessing with holy water; a rotten egg becomes a bouquet of roses. If they put me in jail, it's like I'm vacationing in the Caribbean, or if I'm raped, I tell myself it's just an aerobics work-out.
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Do you find the drugs make it easier not to see the homophobia?
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It's not that I can't see it, just that it bothers me less. Do you really thinks it's possible not to notice it when they start yelling at you as soon as they see you‟re dressed as a woman? Going out on the street is very difficult. You've got have lots of balls to do it. In order to live like this, not knowing where the next attack's coming from, you've got get ripped. If you don't, you're going to feel like shit all over.
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Who's responsible then for the fact that you use drugs?
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I'm not going to say that it's all their fault. But a large part of it is due to the fact that they're at us all the time. They never leave us in peace. What the fuck have we done to 94
deserve these attacks? Why is it that there's no human rights organization out there that's speaking out against the abuse we receive?
Clearly, Pepa is not alone is her use of drugs: I spend about 150 colones a day on smokes, 800 to one thousand on alcohol, and about four to eight thousand on coke. In a month coke will cost me about eight thousand to ten thousand colones. When I've got drugs I share them with my friends from work. The johns will also offer them to me, over and above the money they're paying. (Leticia) I'm into marijuana. It costs me about 100 to 200 colones a day. I've been smoking it pretty much continuously ever since I first started. I've tried various drugs and have used some on a regular basis, but I really prefer weed. If I'm going to a party I may spend as much as ten thousand on it.
(Susy)
Crack is king
In carrying out interviews with members of the transvestite community, the project ethnographer established that crack has been the drug of choice since roughly the 1980's. It is made by mixing cocaine, bicarbonate of soda and water in a spoon, and then heating it over a candle, all the while stirring it continuously with a match. Once the contents have begun to boil, one takes away the heat source, and continues stirring until such time that the mixture has coalesced into a hard rock, similar in appearance to a molar fragment, albeit one blackened by candle smoke. However, it should be noted that the purer the cocaine, the whiter the rock will be. In some cases, rather than using a candle, individuals will heat up the crack mixture by burning cardboard from a pack of cigarettes, thereby emitting less smoke. If this is to be done, the cardboard is first torn into long strips so that it burns more slowly.
Moreover, once the mixture has hardened, the match that was used to stir it is broken off and disposed of.
While this is going on, the other transvestites present are busy smoking regular cigarettes, from which the ashes are saved and collected on tinfoil from a cigarette pack. Then, an empty 'open-easy' juice bottle ( ie. with an opening from which one can drink directly) is taken and one side is caved in so as to leave the other 95
part of it flat. Into this flat part three holes are drilled, and ash placed at the bottom of each one. Meanwhile, the rock is broken up and divided among the participants, with one gramme yielding roughly six or seven pieces. After this has been done, one of the participants will take up the juice bottle, place her lips over its mouth, and then proceed to burn one of the pieces of crack which has been placed on the ash inside the bottle, breathing deeply until the rock has been entirely consumed. If there is anything left after she has finished, she will pass it to the person sitting next to her, saying 'it's a live one, take it.'
The bottles themselves tend to be jealously guarded. If one manages to obtain one, it is kept well-hidden in a safe place.
However, if one is unlucky enough not to have one, a cup half-filled with water is used instead. In this case, a piece of aluminum foil is placed on top of it, with ten small holes made on one side, and one larger hole on the other. The latter is used to breathe in the fumes, while the crack and ashes are placed on the former.
Still, it should be noted that this is not the preferred method of consuming the drug, as part of it is absorbed by the water as it burns.
Basuko
Another popular drug is called basuko, made from a combination of marijuana and cocaine. In effect, it involves sprinkling cocaine (in powder form) over the marijuana as one rolls it into a join