Disorders, torments and delights: actors, networks, categories circulation and meaning disputes about sadomasochism in Brazil

• Grant number: 15/21046-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: January 01, 2016
• End date: May 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Urban Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Regina Facchini
• Grantee: Sarah Rossetti Machado
• Supervisor: Gloria Angelica Careaga Pérez
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Coyoacán (UNAM), Mexico
• Associated to the scholarship: 13/26405-7 - Disorders, torments and delights: actors, networks, categories circulation and meaning disputes about sadomasochism in Brazil, BP.MS

Abstract

This project is a development of my Master's research under the supervision of Professor Regina Facchini. It integrates the studies about gender and sexuality, once its empirical objects are the sexual rights and the legitimation discourses that surrounds a network of BDSM practitioners (bondage, discipline, domination, submission, sadism and masochism). These practitioners, by producing short stories and books, put themselves publicly and disputes senses related to the stigma and the pathologizing of their sexual practices. The approach in relation to BDSM practitioners and their networks occurs by analyzing their textual production between the 1980's and 2000's, focusing on: 1) the composition of networks and dialogue between practitioners and other social actors like activists, psychologists and sexologists; 2) categories' circulation and contentions related to sadomasochism; 3) variations on the socio-political context and networks from which they are produced. The main goal of this research is to contribute to the understanding of: 1) changes in social conventions of gender and sexuality; 2) production of individuals and 'communities' related to sexuality and legitimation strategies of sexual practices. In this research, document analysis is used as main methodological path for data production. Document analysis is complemented here by interviews and online and offline ethnography. For the internship research project the central methodology is litterature review, promoting a methodological and theoretical update in my investigation, which is crucial to understand the data produced in fieldwork. (AU)