Trans Hair Salons in Bogotá: Beauty, Work, and Activism
Type de matériel :
TexteLangue : français Détails de publication : 2025.
Ressources en ligne : Abrégé : Alanis Bello Ramírez’s article follows in the footsteps of sociologist Luz Gabriela Arango (who was her PhD supervisor at the National University of Colombia). Arango pioneered care studies in Colombia and focused her research on beauty and hair salons as a prime setting for studying care for others and oneself. Their work is unique in that it offers a serious take on the beauty industry, based on rigorous empirical research across all social classes and genders. Focusing on trans hair salons, Analis Bello Ramirez highlights their importance not only as places for socializing, but also as political spaces. Far from a miserabilist approach to trans women, who are stigmatized as prostitutes and often find no other job than that of hairdresser in working-class neighborhoods (here in southern Bogota), the article shows how hairdressing is being positively reclaimed in terms of LGBTQI empowerment, well-being, and activism, while highlighting the limitations of these “schools of morality” where trans women can earn an income and gain a form of respectability but remain confined by a misogynistic and violent society.
9
Alanis Bello Ramírez’s article follows in the footsteps of sociologist Luz Gabriela Arango (who was her PhD supervisor at the National University of Colombia). Arango pioneered care studies in Colombia and focused her research on beauty and hair salons as a prime setting for studying care for others and oneself. Their work is unique in that it offers a serious take on the beauty industry, based on rigorous empirical research across all social classes and genders. Focusing on trans hair salons, Analis Bello Ramirez highlights their importance not only as places for socializing, but also as political spaces. Far from a miserabilist approach to trans women, who are stigmatized as prostitutes and often find no other job than that of hairdresser in working-class neighborhoods (here in southern Bogota), the article shows how hairdressing is being positively reclaimed in terms of LGBTQI empowerment, well-being, and activism, while highlighting the limitations of these “schools of morality” where trans women can earn an income and gain a form of respectability but remain confined by a misogynistic and violent society.




Réseaux sociaux