Study of an emerging reality in Social Work: transsexuality from a socioconstructionist perspective

Abstract

This work have as purpose to know how transsexuality is building himself socially from speeches of those interviewed, approaching their experiences and contributing to a better social awareness and visibility to the transsexual community. The methodology of qualitative research used in the Discourse Analysis of Potter and Wetherell (1998), from interpretative concepts. We identify three interpretative repertoires that contribute to the social presentation of this reality from a socioconstructionist perspective: “Define our transsexuality”, “A barrier to destroy” and “Social support networks”.

The main results of the study revealed the influence of the heteronormativity and cisnormativity in the construction of their identity, such as, the invisibility and ignorance as reasons of discrimination and social exclusion. Thus, from Social Work is to promote the respect of diversity in every area of social relations, thus, this is essencial to take responsability that the society respect the existing sexual diversity, such as sexual orientation as gender identity, as transsexuality.