Subtleties and “Stairs of Moralities” in the Bathhouses of Campo Grande - MS

Abstract:

This article is a reflection based on a research on male prostitution in Campo Grande-MS, Brazil, in intersection with some categories of differentiation, such as gender, sexuality, race, class and generation. In the first part, we excavate the constitution of the bathhouse as a privileged locus to the exercise of male prostitution. Highlighting categories such as security, hygiene, discretion and body. In the second part, based on fieldwork in two bathhouses of the city, we analyse new configurations of male prostitution through Michel Foucault’s problematizations of power and moral. These other configurations of male prostitution in bathhouses are mediated by the subtlety of the relation between all the involved in the business of desire facing acceptable and unacceptable conducts that constitute a hegemonic moral subject in the limits of those spaces.

Keywords:
Bathhouses; Male prostitution; Power; Moral; Campo Grande