Beyond Carnival: Male Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century Brazil

by James N. Green

For many foreign observers, Brazil still conjures up a collage of exotic images, ranging from the camp antics of Carmen Miranda to the bronzed girl (or boy) from Ipanema moving sensually over the white sands of Rio's beaches. Among these tropical fantasies is that of the uninhibited and licentious Brazilian homosexual, who expresses uncontrolled sexuality during wild Carnival festivities and is welcomed by a society that accepts fluid sexual identity. However, in Beyond Carnival, the first sweeping cultural history of male homosexuality in Brazil, James Green shatters these exotic myths and replaces them with a complex picture of the social obstacles that confront Brazilian homosexuals.

Ranging from the late nineteenth century to the rise of a politicized gay and lesbian rights movement in the 1970s, Green's study focuses on male homosexual subcultures in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. He uncovers the stories of men coping with arrests and street violence, dealing with family restrictions, and resisting both a hostile medical profession and moralizing influences of the Church. Green also describes how these men have created vibrant subcultures with alternative support networks for maintaining romantic and sexual relationships and for surviving in an intolerant social environment. He then goes on to trace how urban parks, plazas, cinemas, and beaches are appropriated for same-sex erotic encounters, bringing us into the world of street cruising, male hustlers, and cross-dressing prostitutes.

Through his creative use of police and medical records, newspapers, literature, newsletters, and extensive interviews, Green has woven a fascinating history, the first of its kind for Latin America, that will set the standard for future works.

"Green brushes aside outworn cultural assumptions about Brazil's queer life to display its full glory, as well as the troubles which homophobia has sent its way. . . . This latest gem in Chicago's 'World of Desire' series offers a shimmering view of queer Brazilian life throughout the 20th century."— Kirkus Reviews

Winner of the 2000 Lambda Literary Awards' Emerging Scholar Award of the Monette/Horwitz Trust

Winner of the 1999 Hubert Herring Award, Pacific Coast Council on Latin American Studies

Genres: History, Nonfiction, LGBT, Latin American History, Brazil, Academic

416 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2000

Reviews

[Giuliana Gramani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um livro incrível que mapeia a homossexualidade no Brasil desde o final do século XIX por meio da análise de diversos materiais e de informações coletadas em pesquisas e entrevistas. Aprendi muito com essa leitura!

[Isabela · Rating 5 out of 5]

[TCC] excelente livro, fácil de ler, bem delimitado, recortado e embasado. gostei muito que green, ao contrário do trevisan, não propõe contar toda a história da homossexualidade no brasil, mas sim um recorte bem específico da homossexualidade masculina em rio e sp, no século xx. é uma leitura legal, cheia de curiosidades, mas bem maçante em alguns capítulos. levei meses, porque me cansava muito. vai ser muito útil pro meu tcc.

[Dasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Green challenges stereotypes of Brazil as a sensual and sexually uninhibited nation to expose the tensions that male same-sex desire caused to Brazil’s national identity between the 1890s and the 1970s. He argues that medico-legal discourse on same-sex desire attempted to understand homosexuality through more scientific and less moralistic lenses. For example, criminologists tied non-white Brazilians to higher rates of crime and same-sex behaviour. And so, Green demonstrates, how homophobia became closely intertwined with race. Nonetheless, attempts by the scientific community to carefully classify homosexuality always came up short and they fell back to psychological and moral condemnations, often influenced by literature produced by sexologists in Europe. As such, treatment of homosexual males included insulin and shock therapy which often aimed to punish rather than “treat” the patient. Nonetheless, the medical literature largely agreed on the division between “real” men (active) and bachia men (passive), although Green demonstrates how many individuals did not fit these roles. Despite these discourses, Green documents the lively non-conforming topographies of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. This included men who wore red scarves to signal to other men of their availability and cruised city squares. As Brazil increasingly became a consumer culture after the Second World War men who desired men expanded their spaces to bars, clubs, beaches, and radio stations. In spite of the military dictatorship of the 1970s, these communities continued to thrive, although violent attacks and discrimination remained a threat. Green also analyzes Carnival, which he argues allowed men to cross-dress and reveal their true selves to the public for a few days, and in doing so reinforced the gender stereotypes present within Brazilian culture.

[Care · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well done and interesting study on homosexuality and state's attempts to control and cure it during the twentieth century. Research encompassed many fields and mediums and I was really impressed with the readability of it.

[Manfred Souza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Esse livro tece um rico painel da evolução da vida dos gays e das travestis no espaço urbano no eixo rio-sp desde os primórdios do sec. XX até fins da ditadura, sempre atento ao recorte de classe, raça, saúde mental e representação na mídia de cada época.
É interessante ver como algumas coisas (banheirão, sugardaddys, ativos x passivo, michês, fãs de divas) mudaram pouco em um século e outras coisas mudaram muito. Eu devorei esse livro em 3 dias e recomendo entusiasticamente pra quem quiser entender nossa história e nossa luta.

[yana · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extremely valuable research tool. It also just so happens to be VERY readable which is nothing to sneeze at in academia (step away from the Thesaurus dang it). Well informed and concisely argued intelligent points.

Avoids regressing to petty dismissiveness and absolutism which a lot of queer academic literature enjoys doing.

[Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot more nude men in here than expected

[loser]

Fascinating! Read this for research so I won’t give it a rating. But a highly entertaining read nonetheless!

[Shannyn Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm very impressed with the amount of research that went into this book. Using a combination of interviews, medical and arrest records, news and journal clippings, literature and "scientific" research data, Green effectively demonstrates how rigid gender norms spawned a queer subculture of masculine "real men" and feminine "bichas" (queer men passive in anal intercourse), that served to reinforce traditional notions of proper gender roles in Brazil. While men who adhered to these roles still faced persecution, those who subverted the bicha/real man roles upset normative gender ideals on a deeper level and faced greater consequences. Green also manages to tie in changing societal attitudes about gender and sexuality with the upheavals brought on by various political regimes.