Strategies of Irreverent Refusal

While Argentinean travesti author, artist, and performer Naty Menstrual (b. 1975) is celebrated for her explorations of sexual grime, hedonistic pursuits, and raunchy humor, her work remains relatively overlooked in international academic and mainstream discussions within trans/travesti studies. As attention increasingly turns toward Southern Cone travesti artists and activists reshaping transnational transfeminist discourse, it is crucial to recognize Menstrual's pioneering contributions—particularly as one of the first travesti authors to publish narrative work in the Spanish-speaking world. This essay and translation center the lexical and aesthetic untranslatability of Menstrual's debut publication Continuadísimo (2008) and examine how her depictions of travesti desire and pleasure offer an embodied politic of irreverent refusal that resists conventional translations of travesti identity, subjectivity, and expression preserved in her work.