Social representations of university students on travesti people

Résumé

This study sought to understand social representations of undergraduate students in health education in relation to transvestite people. This is a qualitative study based on the theoretical framework of social representations, favoring the core theory. 243 students participated of the study, from which 167 were women and 76 men, aged from 18 to 63 years. The free-association test was performed using the key expression “transvestite people”, the data was processed using the programs EVOC and IRAMUTEQ. The results were interpreted in a four-column table and allowed the identification of the strong symbolic and emotional value of the semantic fields “woman”, “different”, “option”, “transformation” and “joy”, presented by the students, since these express the peculiarities of the represented object. Prejudice was characterized as the main element faced daily by those who express themselves as travestis. The elements structuring the central core did not reveal any distinction between sexual orientation and gender identity by the undergraduates.