Por onde andam os gogoboys de Juiz de Fora? Território, mercado e performance entre os profissionais masculinos de dança erótica

Abstract

This work aims at investigating the social construction of male professionals of erotic dance, known as Gogoboys. Through a qualitative research based on ethnography, I explored the universe of these professionals in the city of Juiz de Fora – MG (Brazil), associated to the interviews with these social actors, either in performance or with those who have performed this activity in the past, trying to analyze the construction of the male body, the role of dance, as well as the perspective of this activity as a form of income supplementation. The research was also based on the investigation of the topic in the virtual field, through the analysis of websites and blogs as well as in the conduct of interviews with professionals working in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The practice of erotic dance performed by men is a social marker of differences, starting with the body, the representation of a masculinity founded mainly on the collective imaginary, which links it to other types of sexual performances. Here, I associate the character gogoboy with other modalities of erotic dances, evidencing the coexistence of related activities in the extensive segmentation of the erotic market. The proposal, however, is not only to think of body and dance as the founding reason of this social grouping - as an individual who dances and takes off his clothes- but as well to consider his technique in the production of desire and the very learning of the character and to consider how he establishes and develops his practices in the city. My attention to its local production, as an activity used to mark identity and gender, is justified on the principle of its virtual existence, shared in cyber space. Although the existence and performance of this character exceed the local borders, its construction is constantly updated locally, according to its field of possibilities.