The Queer Consumption of Naty Menstrual

Abstract

A Sunday morning stroll guides this chapter through Buenos Aires’ downtown sector toward the famed San Telmo neighborhood and a discussion of neoliberal community formation. Here we find transvestite blogger, performer, poet, painter, artist, and author Naty Menstrual. Her kiosk reveals place mats, tee-shirts, and cartoon originals as queer objects bought and sold. The trans-protagonists that populate Menstrual’s artistic production argue for contemporary community formation around queer experiences that question the accuracy and appropriateness of traditional center–periphery dichotomies upheld by the nation’s inclusionary–exclusionary politics. The analysis of Menstrual’s chronicles withinContinuadísimo (2009) and Batido de trolo (2012) suggests that queer figures guide contemporary communities through the inequalities associated with today’s market-oriented society.