Pai de Peruca

“Which one is more of a mother?” — the question echoes. My husband and I adopted our daughter years ago, but this question still returns. As if a home with two fathers still needed the ghost of a woman to be valid. This series began with a simple invitation: I asked my daughter to do my makeup. A small, playful gesture — but charged with meaning. As she applied lipstick, eyeliner, and mascara, I watched myself shift. Not into a woman, but into something more visible. More open. These portraits are not about drag or performance. They are about care, and about how society continues to cling to rigid parental roles — expecting mothers to be irreplaceable and fathers to be optional. In queer families like mine, we often live in that space between absence and invention. Pai de Peruca is a personal reflection on masculinity, softness, and legitimacy. It’s a way of asking: what makes a parent? Who gets to be enough?