"Macho food": Masculinities, food preferences, eating practices history and commensality among gay bears in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Autor(es)

Unsain, Ramiro Fernandez ; Ulian, Mariana Dimitrov ; Sato, Priscila de Morais ; Sabatini, Fernanda ; da Silva Oliveira, Mayara Sanay ; Scagliusi, Fernanda Baeza

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: APPETITE; v. 144, p. 7-pg., 2020-01-01.

Resumo

This article describes and explore eating practices and food preferences among gay men who call themselves bears in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and their relation with their life history, masculinities representations, and sexuality. It is a qualitative and quantitative research within an ethnographic perspective. A purposive sample of thirty-five self-declared gay bears. The data were analyzed identifying the regular, expressive and meaningful significance units collected through the interviews. We identified that the self-declared bears in Sao Paulo, Brazil, build a solid relation between food preferences, eating practices, masculinity, and group belonging. From the bear's perspective, meat, especially bovine, is related to masculinity and extensively understood as a strong common bond within the community, leveraging their sexuality. For these persons, eating meat as well as drinking beer can build the ideal mannish and unfeminine body that is overvalue. Being gay and "eating like a man," as well as exposing a "macho" body while disdaining other body types constructions could represent a strategy to avoid discrimination, shame and humiliation. On the other way, this community does not just linearly imitate heterosexual men although their conducts can reproduce patriarchal representations and meanings through eating practices. These findings could be used to understand the complexity of alimentary practices, particularly food preferences as well as commensalities, among specific communities or membership groups. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 15/12235-8 - A barriga erótica: intersecções entre saúde, gêneros, alimentações e sexualidades na comunidade homossexual de ursos da cidade de São Paulo, Brasil
• Beneficiário: Ramiro Andres Fernandez Unsain
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Doutorado