Reviews

Beyond Carnival: Male Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century Brazil by James N. Green

yanailedit's review against another edition

An extremely valuable research tool. It also just so happens to be VERY readable which is nothing to sneeze at in academia (step away from the Thesaurus dang it). Well informed and concisely argued intelligent points. 

Avoids regressing to petty dismissiveness and absolutism which a lot of queer academic literature enjoys doing.

dashadashahi's review against another edition

4.0

In this book, Green challenges stereotypes of Brazil as a sensual and sexually uninhibited nation to expose the tensions that male same-sex desire caused to Brazil’s national identity between the 1890s and the 1970s. He argues that medico-legal discourse on same-sex desire attempted to understand homosexuality through more scientific and less moralistic lenses. For example, criminologists tied non-white Brazilians to higher rates of crime and same-sex behaviour. And so, Green demonstrates, how homophobia became closely intertwined with race. Nonetheless, attempts by the scientific community to carefully classify homosexuality always came up short and they fell back to psychological and moral condemnations, often influenced by literature produced by sexologists in Europe. As such, treatment of homosexual males included insulin and shock therapy which often aimed to punish rather than “treat” the patient. Nonetheless, the medical literature largely agreed on the division between “real” men (active) and bachia men (passive), although Green demonstrates how many individuals did not fit these roles. Despite these discourses, Green documents the lively non-conforming topographies of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. This included men who wore red scarves to signal to other men of their availability and cruised city squares. As Brazil increasingly became a consumer culture after the Second World War men who desired men expanded their spaces to bars, clubs, beaches, and radio stations. In spite of the military dictatorship of the 1970s, these communities continued to thrive, although violent attacks and discrimination remained a threat. Green also analyzes Carnival, which he argues allowed men to cross-dress and reveal their true selves to the public for a few days, and in doing so reinforced the gender stereotypes present within Brazilian culture.

careinthelibrary's review against another edition

4.0

Well done and interesting study on homosexuality and state's attempts to control and cure it during the twentieth century. Research encompassed many fields and mediums and I was really impressed with the readability of it.