SUMMARY
Presented as the conciliatory voice of wisdom, Teiresias, the blind Theban seer who had been both man and woman, exemplifies how transcending gender can lead to a questioning of normative, victimizing cultural mandates within the polis. This gender-bending acquires further applications in Bertrand Bonello’s 2003 film, Tiresia, about the myth-informed travails of a transsexual Brazilian illegal immigrant prostitute in France. The film daringly deconstructs the dividing lines within contemporary globalized flows: immigrants vs. citizens, men vs. women, dogma vs. humanity. The performative gender of “Tiresia” exposes but also exacerbates the effects of cultural violence, yet also intimates peaceful alternatives.