Contemporary conjugalities, digital media and negotiation of affect: the emotion's economy in Brazilian sites of infidelities

• Grant number: 13/19384-3
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: December 01, 2013
• End date: November 30, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Larissa Maués Pelúcio Silva
• Grantee: Larissa Maués Pelúcio Silva
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura, Artes e Comunicação (FAAC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Bauru. Bauru , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The phenomenon of websites directed toward extra-marital relations is recent in Brazil, but according to their managers the number of users has been increasing exponentially in our country. In this paper we focus on one of this websites, Ashley Madison, specifically because it has been more productive for this research. Our main objective is to analyze the market of online secret betrayal relations not just based on the cited website, but also on its marketing tools used to publicize its services, and on its repercussion in the media. We intend to explore how love and market connect (Illouz, 2009). One of our main hypotheses is that a supposed transgression to monogamy can actually reinforce it. Our interlocutors are the men that search for relationship with women. We intend to understand how these men use masculine values (or defy them) when become a member of betrayal sites. We also intend to expand sexuality studies to analyze stable heterosexual relations which tended to be left aside as a subject of research. Methodologically, we started with an immersion on these sites where the main researcher created profiles and interacted with male users inviting them to take part in the investigation. (AU)