“IT'S END OF LIFE AND CAREER!”: MEANINGS ATTRIBUTED TO PENIS CANCER BY SEX WORKERS TRANSVESTITES

Abstract

The main objective of this text is to understand the meanings attributed to penile cancer by transvestites sex workers. This is a qualitative and descriptive study carried out in Recife, Pernambuco, in 2019. The literature on Anthropology of Health in the field of Social Sciences in Health constituted a theoretical framework. Eight black interlocutors participated, where a field notebook, a sociodemographic characterization form and a semi-structured interview script were used in the production of data. For the analysis, thematic coding was used, resulting in two categories "embodiment of the 'new' disease" and "it's like the end of life and career!". Finally, the data located the meanings of penile cancer from the social and historical context and from the transvestites' own experiences, where the embodiment of the 'new' disease gained prominence as metaphors were constructed to designate it, as well as the social and career death that it would represent in their lives.