Masculinidades plurais: um estudo sobre homens dissidentes de gênero e sexualidade no projeto “Chicos”

Abstract

In this work, I aim to investigate the representations of dissent to the legitimated masculinity patterns, from the point of view of men divergent from the norms of gender and sexuality. For that, I use as an object of analysis photographs and testimonies produced for the "Chicos" Project, which was carried out independently by the young Minas Gerais photographers Fábio Lamounier and Rodrigo Ladeira. The project proposal aims at stressing hegemonic notions of masculinities demanded by heteronormativity, which is the social and cultural regime that legitimates heterosexual relations and the binary gender pattern. The project includes a printed book and online platforms, which took place between 2014 and 2016, with the collaboration of homosexual men, transsexuals and a bisexual man, from some Brazilian capitals and from Buenos Aires. The analysis is centered on the discussion of the strategies of representation triggered by the photographic models of the Project "Chicos", using as theoretical contribution the Queer Studies. I observe that the ideals of masculinity are taught and reproduced by various institutions and subjects, in the perspective of adapting men to social positions considered desirable. In this context, dissenting men of the norms of gender and sexuality are confronted with various contradictions and stigmatizations in expressing and living their experiences, such as embarrassment, prejudice, loss of basic rights, physical and psychological violence and in some cases, even the death. Thus, through reading images and analyzing the statements, I try to understand the subversion practices adopted by those involved in the "Chicos" Project, in an attempt to question the social expectations of dissenting men of the norms of gender and sexuality in relation to the forms of expression of their identitary locations.