GLQ 7.

4-06 Rebhun 10/16/01 5:16 PM Page 637

Book Review

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF GAY

MALE IDENTITY IN BRAZIL
L. A. Rebhun

Beneath the Equator: Cultures of Desire, Male Homosexuality, and

Emerging Gay Communities in Brazil
Richard Parker
New York: Routledge, 1999. xvi + 288 pp. $85.00 cloth, $22.95 paper

The 1990s saw a profusion of anthropological publishing in English on gender in

Latin America, with a special focus on the construction of male gender and on
practices of homosexuality and bisexuality among men in that region.1 To this
growing literature Richard Parker contributes his excellent Beneath the Equator,
about the historical development of male homosexual identity and practice in
Brazil.
Images of Brazil, fueled by advertising from international tourism agen-
cies, include the pleasures of Rio de Janeiro’s sweeping beaches and sparkling
nightlife, representations of hot times to be had in a lush tropical setting. As
Parker has shown in works published from 1985 to the present, sex — hot, exotic,
available — has been part of Brazil’s allure since the earliest colonial times.2 In
Beneath the Equator he offers a broad political-economic history of the emergence
of a variety of ways of celebrating male homosexuality in modern Brazil.
Parker is perhaps the foremost authority on Brazilian sexuality writing in
English. His previous work has been criticized for proposing to explain Brazilian
sexuality in general while actually telling more about how Brazilian men think of
sex than Brazilian women, a criticism with which I agree.3 Beneath the Equator

GLQ 7:4
pp. 637–643
Copyright © 2001 by Duke University Press
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avoids that problem by focusing explicitly on male homosexuality. It is a book of

ambitious theoretical breadth and astonishing ethnographic depth. It sets out to
explain in detail how homosexual identity emerged in Brazil at a time of enormous
social, political, and economic change. Parker manages to present complex ethnog-
raphy and theory intelligently, wittily, and in straightforward language. He shows
that gay identity and the emergence of homosexual community are fluid processes
in a complicated and changing national and international scene. Parker presents a
vision of Brazil that is at once unsparing and respectful, honest, poignant, and
deeply human.
Parker has had long experience living and working in Brazil. He first went
there as a graduate student in 1982 and returned to live there after completing a
dissertation on Brazilian sexual cultures; he also served as secretary-general of
the Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association. In Beneath the Equator he uses
his own participant-observation fieldwork conducted in Rio de Janeiro from 1982
to 1988 and bolsters it with the collaborative research of teams of Brazilian inves-
tigators who collected hundreds of life histories from men who have sex with men;
these teams also collected statistical data in five Brazilian cities chosen with an
eye to balanced representation of the nation’s culturally and economically distinct
regions: Rio, São Paulo, Fortaleza, Belo Horizonte, and Recife. This collaborative
research, which took place from 1989 to 1996, provided data on AIDS and on
women who have sex with women, a subject Parker promises to publish on in the
near future. In addition, the research teams interviewed and administered surveys
to some two thousand men in several separate studies directed by Parker over the
years.4
Starting with an erudite review of theories on homosexuality in general, yet
avoiding the pitfall of excessive jargon, Parker situates ethnographic material of
unusual depth and detail in a critique of contemporary theory. While acknowl-
edging his intellectual debt to theorists, historians, and ethnographers who have
preceded him, Parker takes them to task for ignoring the massive social, cultural,
and political changes (apart from those forced by the AIDS epidemic) that shaped
same-sex sexual practice and homosexual identity in the twentieth century. Focus-
ing on a model of sexuality as fundamentally diverse, he posits that culture shapes
sexuality through a set of “distinct cultural frames” (27) that intersect in complex
ways.
One of these frames, also examined in Parker’s earlier work, is that Brazil-
ian folk concepts of sexuality differ from the model, derived from medical studies,
of homosexuality and heterosexuality as different orientations.5 That is, rather
than ask themselves whether men like to have sex with women or with men, or
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SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF GAY MALE IDENTITY IN BRAZIL 639

whether women like to have sex with men or with other women, ordinary Brazil-
ians classify sexual types by the perceived activity or passivity of the sexual acts
themselves. The Portuguese word dar [to give] denotes the act of being penetrated,
seen as passive, and the word comer [to eat] that of penetrating, seen as active.
Brazilian folk models of sexuality associate dar with femininity and comer with
masculinity.
For Parker, this basic distinction characterizes the way Latin Americans
conceive of gender roles, and it works its way through the great many ways of
expressing sexual pleasure and identity. One consequence is that men can have
sex with other men without feeling the need to create a self-identity different from
that of men who have sex exclusively with women, as long as they never dar a
bunda [give tail] (29 – 30).6 Another consequence is that men who dar a bunda
become popularly associated with femininity, an idea that encompasses a variety
of mannerisms, interests, and personality traits. The bicha, or passive-receptive
male homosexual, too often becomes the target of violent derision (31), but he can
also become the target of male lust without compromising the masculinity of the
men who both fear and desire him. This model of passivity-activity, and of func-
tional male bisexuality in Latin America, has been noted by other anthropologists,
all cited by Parker.7
Unlike other anthropologists who have examined this model of gender,
Parker is interested in the complexities and varieties of power inherent in sexual
interaction and in how they, concepts of masculinity, and types of market exchange
interact to form the kaleidoscope of Brazilian sexual practice. Parker sees it not as
a static or universal way of thinking but as one of a number of overlapping models
of sexuality. In addition to the active-passive divide, the medical model of homo-
and heterosexuality has gained salience, especially in urban areas and among the
middle class. In his previous work Parker has written that an ideology emphasiz-
ing the delights of transgression mediates various ways of understanding male sex-
uality in Brazil and eroticizes power.8 Beneath the Equator now shows how the
complex interactions of power and eroticism have shaped male homosexual prac-
tice in Brazil.
Parker details the emergence of labeled social roles for practitioners of a
proliferation of sexual varieties, from the older categories of bichas and viados
[passive male homosexuals] to travestís [transsexuals], transformistas [drag per-
formers], michês [male hustlers], and go-go boys [male erotic dancers], among oth-
ers. He not only explains when these roles emerged but maps in which cities, on
which streets, and in which clubs they emerged, as well as the subtleties that dis-
tinguish them. This detailed description precedes an equally detailed discussion
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640 GLQ: A JOURNAL OF LESBIAN AND GAY STUDIES

of modernization in Brazil: not just the general concept of modernization but the
specific political changes from military to civilian government, the passage of par-
ticular laws, the development of economic policies, the reasons that those policies
failed, the ones that replaced them, and how that affected people’s lives.
Parker shows how an increasing sense of citizenship under the neoliberal
political abertura [opening] following military rule, and the spread of market cap-
italism as the basis of social relationships, allowed for widespread changes in gen-
der and sexuality in Brazilian society. The family lost its central place in economic
production when people were able to take on wage labor as individuals; it became
a locus of emotional security instead (116). This, and the common availability of
modern contraceptives, led to a redefining of sex as having to do primarily with
pleasure, creating a social, economic, and political context in which personal iden-
tity and lifestyles based on sexual preferences could emerge, along with political
organizations designed to further acceptance of homosexuality (115 – 23).
The impact of market capitalism on family and gender roles has been
examined by anthropologists interested in heterosexual behavior,9 but Beneath the
Equator is the first work to put the emerging literature on capitalism and hetero-
sexuality together with considerations of homosexual identity, and it is one of the
most detailed examinations of the issue in the literature. Parker’s approach helps
situate homosexuality not as an unusual, deviant, or exotic behavior but as part of
the constellation of ways that human beings identify, love, and have sex with one
another and as subject to the same societal trends as any other form of sexual
practice.
One of the many interesting points Parker brings out is how open homo-
sexual practice, associated popularly with economic prosperity, middle-class sta-
tus, and prestigious involvement in the styles of foreigners, especially those from
the United States, can facilitate social mobility for young Brazilian men from poor
urban families. Identifying oneself openly as gay is about personal sexual libera-
tion, but Parker shows how, in the context of Brazilian economic development, it
can be about economic liberation and political progress as well. Thus gay identity
and gay rights movements go hand in hand with economic development, not only
in the form of direct grants given to AIDS prevention efforts but as a consequence
of the general loosening of sexual mores that accompanies economic change.
Parker quotes a Brazilian university student’s ironic comment: “Money from the
World Bank funding gay organizing in Brazil! There is something very strange
about it all” (122). There is something very strange, and yet amusingly satisfying
as well, in Parker’s revelations about the relationships among international fund-
ing, economic change, and gay rights liberation in Brazil — but don’t expect to see
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SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF GAY MALE IDENTITY IN BRAZIL 641

any agency spokespeople boasting about this benefit of their programs anytime
soon.
Beneath the Equator is characterized by careful definition and application
of terms and ideas. Rather than use the term modernization in the vague way typ-
ical of anthropological works, for example, Parker gives the specifics of economic
policy, political history, and social change in particular regions and cities. He
carefully elucidates how each of these specifics is related to particular develop-
ments in homoerotic practice in the cities he studied and provides charts and
maps of what he calls a “topography of homoerotic desire” (54).
Parker’s discussion of the emergence of openly gay commercial establish-
ments in the 1980s and 1990s, along with the possibility of openly proclaimed
homosexual identities from the more secretive practices of the past, demonstrates
the many-layered nature of relationships among personal practices, political and
economic changes, developments in the entertainment industry, and the work of
both national and international political organizations in Brazil. He shows that
while Brazilian concepts of gay identity and the organizing of political groups to
promote gay political issues arose under considerable cultural and economic influ-
ence from the United States, they took a peculiarly Brazilian form and responded
as much to political and economic changes from within Brazil as to cultural influ-
ences from the outside.
In addition, Parker shows how the similar timing of the emergence of a gay
rights movement in Brazil and of international awareness of and efforts to control
AIDS shaped local conceptions of male homosexuality. He provides a careful dis-
cussion of the emerging gay rights and AIDS prevention movement in Brazil.
Although he also describes and discusses the considerable violence and discrim-
ination against openly homosexual men in Brazil, he gives equal weight to the
strength of gays’ resistance to mistreatment and to the courage of the many gay
men and women who have openly proclaimed their sexualities and have stood
together against political oppression in this former military dictatorship. Parker
shows how a sense of community arose in Brazilian cities among those who
rejected derogatory labels applied by heterosexuals in favor of the concept of iden-
tity as entendido [lit. someone in the know] or gay (the English word is increas-
ingly used in Brazil). By assigning their own names to their identities, Brazilians
who engage in same-sex erotic practices have begun the difficult and complex task
of building a community defined on its own terms (47).
Parker deepens his discussion of economic policy with quotations from
informants about how particular policies and developments impacted their lives.
These often erudite quotations illustrate his point that what goes on at a national
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642 GLQ: A JOURNAL OF LESBIAN AND GAY STUDIES

or international level has a profound impact on what goes on in the streets, where
ordinary people seek to find “bits and pieces of happiness while making [their]
way in a difficult world” (51).
This book shows not only how complex human sexual variety and practice
are but also how the many disparate threads of culture intertwine to affect people’s
experience of sexual pleasure. It demonstrates the artificiality of rigid distinctions
between homosexuality and heterosexuality, the close relationship between family
structure and sexual practice, and the limitations of contemporary medical models
of sexual normality. It demonstrates how illuminating careful and detailed ethno-
graphic description can be, and it takes a place of honor among the best contem-
porary social science research. Beneath the Equator is suitable for both graduate
and undergraduate courses and is a must in the libraries of scholars of sexuality,
gender, Latin America, and social change. Moreover, Parker’s citation patterns
make available to U.S. scholars the broad Portuguese-language social science lit-
erature produced by Brazilian intellectuals.
Scholars have only just begun to scratch the surface of male sexual orien-
tation and practice in Latin America. Parker’s book gives clues to where scholar-
ship should go and how it should go there. Together with other works in this bur-
geoning field, it shows how fascinating and important this topic is for ethnographic
and theoretical examination.

Notes

1. See esp. Joseph Carrier, De Los Otros: Intimacy and Homosexuality among Mexican
Men (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995); Ray González, ed., Muy Macho:
Latino Men Confront Their Manhood (New York: Anchor, 1996); Matthew C. Gut-
mann, The Meanings of Macho: Being a Man in Mexico City (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1996); Don Kulick, Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazil-
ian Transgendered Prostitutes (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998); Roger N.
Lancaster, Life Is Hard: Machismo, Danger, and the Intimacy of Power in Nicaragua
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992); Alfredo Mirandé, Hombres y Machos:
Masculinity and Latino Culture (Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1997); and Annick Prieur,
Mema’s House, Mexico City: On Transvestites, Queens, and Machos (Chicago: Univer-
sity of Chicago Press, 1998).
2. See Richard Parker, “Masculinity, Femininity, and Homosexuality: On the Anthropo-
logical Interpretation of Sexual Meanings in Brazil,” Journal of Homosexuality 11, nos.
3 – 4 (1985): 155 – 63; Parker, “Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome in Urban
Brazil,” Medical Anthropological Quarterly, n.s., 1 (1987): 155 –75; Parker, “Bodies
and Pleasures: On the Construction of Erotic Meanings in Contemporary Brazil,”
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Anthropology and Humanism Quarterly 14, no. 2 (1989): 58 – 64; Parker, “Youth,
Identity, and Homosexuality: The Changing Shape of Sexual Life in Contemporary
Brazil,” Journal of Homosexuality 17, nos. 3 – 4 (1989): 269 – 89; Parker, Bodies,
Pleasures, and Passions: Sexual Culture in Contemporary Brazil (Boston: Beacon,
1991); Parker, A Construção da Solidariedade: AIDS, Sexualidade, e Política no Brasil
(Rio de Janeiro: Relume-Dumará, 1994); Parker, “The Carnivalization of the World,”
in The Gender/Sexuality Reader: Culture, History, Political Economy, ed. Roger N.
Lancaster and Micaela di Leonardo (New York: Routledge, 1997), 361–77; Richard
Parker and John H. Gagnon, eds., Conceiving Sexuality: Approaches to Sex Research in
a Postmodern World (New York: Routledge, 1995); Richard Parker and Regina Maria
Barbosa, eds., Sexualidades Brasileiras (Rio de Janeiro: Relume-Dumará, 1996);
Richard Parker and Veriano Terto Jr., eds., Entre Homems: Homosexualidade e AIDS
no Brasil (Rio de Janeiro: ABIA, 1998).
3. See Donna M. Goldstein, “AIDS and Women in Brazil: The Emerging Problem,” Social
Science and Medicine 39 (1994): 919 –29.
4. Parker began his research as an individual researcher in 1982 and continued in stints
through 1988. In 1989 he assembled a team in Rio to study reactions to HIV/AIDS
among men who have sex with men; this work was extended to São Paulo, Fortaleza,
Belo Horizonte, and Recife starting in 1994, and the question set also expanded to
include life histories, political views, sexual identity issues, and examinations of
emerging concepts of homosexual community. In addition, members of the research
team carried out ethnographic observations in public areas, businesses, and local
organizations relevant to gay life in these cities in successive waves of research through
1996 (Beneath the Equator, 19 –21).
5. See esp. Parker, Bodies, Pleasures, and Passions.
6. See also ibid., 46.
7. See esp. Carrier, De Los Otros; Lancaster, Life Is Hard; and Stephen O. Murray, ed.,
Latin American Male Homosexualities (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press,
1995).
8. Parker, Bodies, Pleasures, and Passions, 134–35.
9. See esp. Vassos Argyrou, Tradition and Modernity in Mediterranean Society: The Wed-
ding as Symbolic Struggle (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996); Jane
Fishburne Collier, From Duty to Desire: Remaking Families in a Spanish Village
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997); Laurel Kendall, Getting Married in
Korea: Of Gender, Morality, and Modernity (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1996); and L. A. Rebhun, The Heart Is Unknown Country: Love in the Changing
Economy of Northeast Brazil (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999).
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