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Desire, Hierarchy, and Agency: Youth, Homosexuality, and Difference Markers in São Paulo

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Abstract

In this article, we present the results of ethnographic research undertaken in areas with concentrated recreational venues frequented by diverse youth groups in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. This material is part of the larger “Relationships between race, gender and sexuality in different national and local contexts” research initiative. Here, we focus upon data collected through ethnographic observation and interviews conducted in various locales where young men meet to engage in homoerotic sociability, demonstrating different degrees of conviviality among groups of different socioeconomic profiles and distinct esthetic preferences, consumer habits, and body types. We explore the production of styles and body presentations that link markers of color/race, gender, and sexuality, as well as the relationships that these maintain with opening or restricting possibilities for the establishment of erotic and affective partnerships involving these boys.

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Notes

  1. Three types of data-collecting methodologies were employed in this research: ethnographic observation, in-depth interviews (24), and a small survey (48). The present article is mainly based upon data revealed by ethnographic research and interviews. The data contained in the present article compose only a part of the research results achieved in São Paulo, where heterosexual sociability spaces were also investigated.

  2. We thank Peter Fry for calling our attention to this point.

  3. For critical discussion of these models of sexual classification, see MacRae 1990; Perlongher 2008; Green 2000; Facchini 2005; Facchini 2008; Carrara and Simões 2007.

  4. Travestis are not simply men who use female clothes, make-up, and hairstyles, such as “transvestites” or “cross-dressers.” Travestis live most of their quotidian lives as women, adopting female names and pronouns, and practicing bodily modification practices that are often irreversible in an attempt to acquire an attractive female physical form. Not all travestis claim a feminine subjectivity, however: many of them do not wish to remove their penises. Regarding travestis in Brazil, see Kulick 1998; Benedetti 2005; Pelucio 2009.

  5. The expression is used by some of the interviewees to designate boys and girls who reject defining themselves according to any sexual categorization, be it hetero-, homo-, or bisexual.

  6. This characterization of Brazil’s color/race classificatory models as alternatively multi-polar and bipolar, with political militancy generally concentrating around the later, follows Fry’s elaboration (Fry 2005). See also Schwarcz 2000; Moutinho 2004.

  7. We thank Sergio Carrara for calling our attention to this point.

  8. Here, we use the term “sexual-affective market” in the sense in which it appears in Ellingson et al. (2004) in order to refer to the patterned strategies and criteria which are activated in the search for sexual partners.

  9. Regarding this point, see Moutinho’s use of “heterochromic” (instead of “interracial”) relationships (Moutinho 2004), which itself is built off on the classic work of Thales de Azevedo (Azevedo 1975).

  10. In the present article, we use the terms homosexual and bisexual due to their recurrent presence in the specialized literature devoted to the topic under study. However, we remind readers that these categories tend to homogenize the members of a very varied population which often do not refer to themselves in such terms, even though they may engage in sexual acts with people of the same or both sexes. In the Vieira, one encounters a wide range of people who can be qualified as “in the know” (entendidos), “men who like men,” “gay,” or other terms. These categories cross, mingle, and conflict with others which transcend the sexual orientation categorical axis. This is the case, for example, of the “bears” (virile-looking men who grow beards and mustaches and reject a bodily appearance centered on “excessive” muscles) and the “old heads” (coroas, older men), among others. In order to facilitate general description and intelligibility, however, we take up such categories only during those moments in which they become relevant for our account.

  11. For a general view of the expansion of places devoted to homosexual consumption and sociability in São Paulo in the 1970s and 1980s, see MacRae (2005), Perlongher (2008), Simões and Facchini (2009). For more recent decades, see França (2006).

  12. Gays, Lesbians, and Sympathizers (GLS) is the term used to denominate the circuit of bars and other consumption spaces dedicated to the city’s homosexual population. The term is also commonly associated with the segmented market dedicated to this public. Its use demarcates differences related to the movement and to the market, though the general public often confuses this distinction, commonly using the term “GLS market” and “LGBT movement.” See Simões and França 2005; França 2006

  13. LGBT refers to Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Travesties, Transsexuals, and Transgender and is a term commonly used to denote the homosexual political movement in Brazil since the Conferência Nacional LGBT of May 2008.

  14. The color/race categories employed here are emic and come from our informants. When not expressly indicated, the ascription of categories represents our researchers’ opinions. In general, we use what Fry (2005) has labeled the popular bipolar mode of classification (black, white, brown, or mixed).

  15. This emic term refers to men who dress as women with the goal of producing a comic performance. Many of these men present humorous and campy skits.

  16. It should be remembered, in any case, that the neighborhood has been marked by sporadic incidents of violence against young gay men. One of the most well-known of these cases was the 2001 murder by beating of Édson Neris, a boy who was walking while holding hands with his companion in the Praça da República.

  17. “Gonging” is an emic term which means to ridicule someone. Its origin is possibly in the old “gong shows,” or amateur night performances on TV.

  18. Translators’ note: American readers are advised that “black boy” or “rapaz negro” does not necessarily carry the patronizing racial weight the same term would have in a similar situation in the USA. Its intent is almost always exclusively polite as a “rapaz” is generally considered to be a well-turned out young man, independent of his color or race. Here we have translated “rapaz” as “boy” in those moments where it is clearly linked to generation hierarchical categorization structures. In other moments, we have translated the term as “young man.”

  19. This section of the article is taken from data presented in Isadora Lins França doctoral thesis research at Unicamp, under the orientation of Júlio Assis Simões. Further discussion of these data can be found in França (2009). For an overview of samba places in downtown São Paulo, see Macedo (2007).

  20. “Moleque” in Brazilian Portuguese means “black or brown boy” and also “playful, frolicking, wild boy.” It derives from the Kimbundu word “muleke” or “little boy.”

  21. For a similar reflection dealing with young brown and black gay men who are residents of a favela in Rio Janeiro, see Moutinho (2006). Also see Aguião (2007).

  22. See note 12.

  23. Some of the boys also claimed they bought condoms in pharmacies or drug stores, but only one of them said that this was his primary method of obtaining condoms. We could not discover why the majority did not buy condoms—whether it was due to lack of money, whether they believed it was foolish to spend money on something which could be gotten for free, or whether there was some embarrassment involved in the purchase.

  24. We do not wish here to underestimate the effects that drugs or alcohol might have in pickup or cruising scenes. Our informants did indeed admit to regular consumption of alcohol and also to the occasional use of illegal drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and ecstasy. The boys also believe that alcohol allows them to relax and become more intimate but also claim that too much alcohol can negatively affect their sexual performance. Aside from ecstasy, those synthetic drugs that stimulate sociability and which are quite visible in that part of the gay scene frequented by the mass media (especially in upper class nightclubs) do not appear to be part of these young men’s consumption habits. We also recorded no instances of intravenous drug use.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Antropologia, FFLCH, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Prof. Luciano Gualberto, 315, Cidade Universitária, 05008-900, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

    Júlio Assis Simões

  2. Pagu-Núcleo de Estudos de Gênero, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, R. Cora Coralina s/n, Prédio dos Professores do IFCH, 13083-896, Campinas, SP, Brazil

    Isadora Lins França & Regina Facchini

  3. PPGAS, IFCH, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 13081-970, Caixa-Postal 6110, Campinas, SP, Brazil

    Luiz Henrique Passador

Authors
  1. Júlio Assis Simões
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  2. Isadora Lins França
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  3. Luiz Henrique Passador
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  4. Regina Facchini
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Júlio Assis Simões.

Additional information

Translator: Thaddeus Blanchette. E-mail: macunaima30@yahoo.com.br

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Simões, J.A., França, I.L., Passador, L.H. et al. Desire, Hierarchy, and Agency: Youth, Homosexuality, and Difference Markers in São Paulo. Sex Res Soc Policy 7, 252–269 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-010-0029-7

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