Markers of difference and production of the self in male prostitution

Abstract

This study analyzes social markers of difference as vectors of self-production in prostitution among men. For that, an ethnographic process was carried out through three spaces (Street, Bar and Sauna) of the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil, in which field diaries and narrative interviews were made. Analytically speaking, with proposals for discursive analysis and intersectional perspectives, this research shows that social markers such as territory, generation, gender and sexuality are intrinsically related to the expression of forms of valorization and devaluation in prostitution. Placing the subjects in different positions of possibility of agency, these markers make up an economically strategic existential space.