(So What) If Im a Puta?

An incisive, intimate diary of moments in the life of a travesti sex worker, from a prominent voice for trans and sex workers’ rights in Brazil

So (What If) I’m a Puta?, originally published on author Amara Moira’s popular blog of the same name, is a series of 44 short crônicas detailing Moira’s entry into and experiences as a travesti sex worker in Brazil. In a brazen, funny, and at times heartbreaking voice, Moira provides a revealing account of her life as a sex worker and self-described “travesti putafeminista,” exploring the political and personal textures of her encounters with the men who buy sex from her. 

Woven through Moira’s no-holds-barred essays are reflections on transition, safe sex, desire and being desired, violence and consent, whore- and transphobia, bisexuality, and feminism. Ultimately, her position and her reason for writing ring clear as a bell: “I prefer to give a voice to us prostitutes,” she writes, “to listen to our stories and demands, to fight so that we have full autonomy to choose which path we want.”