BBB 22: Transvestite or trans? Lina has to be didactic with Scooby

Linna Pereira dos Santos, better known as Linn da Quebrada, is the first transvestite to participate in Big Brother Brasil. Her success in music led the singer to be one of the celebrities to enter the most watched house in Brazil.

Anyone who imagined that the artist’s passage through BBB 22 would not be marked by transphobia is wrong. Several times, his pronoun was used incorrectly and, more recently, he needed to be didactic to explain the difference between transvestite and trans.

Lina explains the difference between transvestite and trans

On Wednesday afternoon (2), in a conversation with Pedro Scooby, Lina explained about her experience as a transvestite. The artist explained that “transgenderity is a big umbrella, which speaks about trans identities”. She had also explained it to Sister Naiara Azevedo at another time.

Lina also commented on the questioning of identity being summarized in the subject’s genitals. “It’s not whether I have a dick or a pussy that will define whether I’m a man or a woman.” See the conversation:

scooby: “trans is the same name as transvestite?”
linn: “THE transvestites” and then her explaining #BBB22 pic.twitter.com/GaZ2LQrIup

— didi. 🪴 (@plantasarradora) March 2, 2022

He also exposed some situations of prejudice and violence experienced by people close to him, such as the fact of “having to warn” that he is a transvestite when staying with someone: “I think that this place of having to warn him is like that… He was not interested in me , since you stayed with me? I don’t have to warn you.” That is, if there is interest, it should suffice by itself.

And she continued reporting a situation of transphobia with a friend: “she stayed with a guy at a party, at a samba, at a pagode, something like that, and then there was pressure from the other friends, and he came back, took a bottle and broke on her head. And no one from the bar was mobilized, because then it seems that she was wrong because she had to have warned him that she was a trans person. Ridiculous, ridiculous.”

In view of this comment, it is visible how much Brazil does not treat transvestites as people and marginalizes them. It is no wonder that it remains at the top of the list of countries that kills the most trans people in the world, registering 140 murders in 2021, according to Agência Brasil. Of that number, 135 victims were transvestites and transgender women and five victimized trans men and transmale people.

The singer ends the conversation by explaining that she cannot speak for all trans women and transvestites, but, in her point of view, the transvestite is constructed and emerges at a certain time, in a certain political context, as a category that is marginalized from the streets. , being a class and belonging to a group and social context.

It is also important to understand that violence against transvestites does not just happen through physical aggression. Refusing to call the person by their social name, for example, is also a form of violence.

Use of the pronoun “she” is respect

At BBB 22, the singer was a victim of transphobia from participants a few times. An example is brother Lucas, who called Linn by the male pronoun at a party, despite having the female pronoun “she” literally tattooed on his forehead. This greatly hurt the singer. Lucas even apologized to Lina, who replied saying: “I can’t go wrong at this point in the championship”.

During a leader test, participant Slovenia again got the pronoun wrong. In the sentence, the sister called the singer “friend” instead of calling her “friend”. On social media, people again drew attention to the fact that the singer had the word “she” tattooed on her forehead and even so, they continue to insist on the pronoun error.

And outside the house, that matter reverberated. On the Tarja Preta FM podcast, presenters Robert Kifer, Arthur Petry, Bianca and Kaio D’Elaqua commented: “I think you have to stop calling it a transvestite and start calling it a thing, then no one will complain”. The transphobic speech has fans and the internet outraged. See the excerpt of the speech below:

“Humorists” call Linn da Quebrada a “thing” and make jokes with pronouns pic.twitter.com/OpNZWByqkE

— Gossiped #BBB22 (@FOFOQUEl) February 24, 2022