EMOTION, PERFORMANCE AND POPULAR REVELRY: MALE CROSS-DRESSING AND THE VISIBILITY OF FEELINGS

Abstract

This study aims to understand the experiences and feelings experienced by male homosexuals who play in rural Maracatu in Pernambuco. In this sense, the feminine performance of transvestite homosexual men allows exposing various elements of social life, which become an instrument for consolidating emotions, highlighting important asymmetries in the relationship with the care of possible sexualities. In an attempt to deepen some issues, an ethnographic study was carried out based on observations of the trajectories of transvestitism in rehearsals and official presentations of the groups during the carnival period. Informal conversations were held with the aim of expanding and consolidating the discourses and subjectivities. The experiences of cross-dressing, sexuality and social practices are related to the construction of emotional vocabularies related to the “micropolitics of emotions”, in the reaffirmation of collective norms. With this, the inversion of male and female roles in popular merriment does not mean reaffirming the difference, suspending it, but resignifying it in the context of social relations.