CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2013
| Author | Gomez Gonzalez Júnior, José Luís |
|---|---|
| Title | An integrative approach to understand constitutive forces in the emerging Bear culture of Sao Paulo: the field of masculinity and gender capital |
| Summary | The Bear culture in Brazil started to flourish in the second half of the 1990s and it has been growing ever since, but what are the constitutive forces of this emerging culture? That is precisely the research question of this thesis. Based on the theoretical model of the field of masculinity by Coles (2008) and the concept of gender capital by Bridges (2009), the aim of this thesis is to develop an integrative approach to understand constitutive forces in the emerging Bear culture of São Paulo, the most important city of the Bear scene in Brazil. This research was based on fieldwork with eleven members of the Bear community of São Paulo. By presenting a specific form of gender capital, this study demonstrated that Bears adequately illustrate what Coles (2008) argued that some men’s “lived experiences of masculinity were not of being subordinated or marginalized by hegemonic masculinity; to the contrary, they considered their own masculinity to be dominant despite being incompatible with, or varying from, the hegemonic ideal” (p. 234). Their attitude (such as “going natural” and “masculine behaviour”), bodily characteristics (such as body hair, Bear belly and being stocky) and elements of the Bearphernalia (such as jeans, checked shirts, caps and boots) provide Bears with valuable capital not only within the subfields of Bear and gay masculinity, but also in the field of masculinity. |
| Supervisor | Timar, Eszter; and Almarza, Liamar Duran |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2013/gomez-gonzalez-junior_jose-luis.pdf |
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