Macho e/ou cliente? as performances e a construção dos papéis de gênero em estabelecimentos de prostituição de mulheres no município de São Luís/ Maranhão

Abstract

The present study aimed to analyze the building of masculinities in sex-working places where gender issues are surpassed by people’s own logics, negotiations and interactions. The methodology was focused on qualitative research and bibliographical review, mainly on studies about prostitution and gender. The study was also done through ethnographic research and participant observation, carried out in two brothels in the city of São Luis, Maranhão and had the objective of

demonstrating how gender identities are inserted in the activity of spaces where sex- working is practiced, thus deconstructing traditional representations of these

environments - mostly seen as a mere place of brief sexual relief and male entertainment. While facing with men’s roles of clients and non-clients as well as gender’s performance, we question the prostitution market, its discourses and practices: what mechanisms are used in order to produce discourses related to masculinity, which highlighted representations based on compulsive heteronormativity and beyond.