Somos Todas Verônica : How travestis are being represented in the online journal Jornal O Globo

The aim of this paper is to uncover how travestis are being represented in one of Brazil’s biggest online journals; Jornal O Globo. O Globo’s words reach millions everyday and are therefore a major discursive stakeholder. I have used Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Queer theory to expose the main existing discourses in Jornal O Globo that relates to travestis. The study revealed how O Globo uses an active/passive discourse that limits the performativity of travestis; one expression of this discourse was the modification of the Portuguese language according to other rules than those of grammar. The performativity of travestis that linguisticly requests the usage of female pronouns was to a greater extent respected by journalists when the travesti acted passive/feminine as in becoming victim of unprovoked violence, told a story of financial or artisitic success, or if LGBT activists participated in the news coverage. In summary the active/passive discourse epitomizes a conventional Brazilian gender binarism that consists of two genders that is man and non-man. From a queer theoretical perspective I argue that O Globo’s representations of travestis continuously hinder the performativity of these individuals through their linguistic and discursive practice, which contributes to societal ostracism toward travestis.