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This paper proposes an analysis based on the ethnography in sex clubs and sex bars for men in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The paper examines how the different markers that operate in such areas are being melted to produce desirable bodies and subjects. I locate these sites in the broader market for commercial sexual encounters among men in the city, exploring social conventions and practices that permeate the body, sexual practices and erotic choices. This is a starting point for inquiring the ways in which certain stereotypes of "masculinity" are provided with meaning and are embodied. I also propose a revision of the erotic choices and sexual practices, which challenges the idea of eroticism expressed by thinkers such as Georges Bataille. According to him, gender is fixed and crystallized, is linked to sexual dimorphism of sex/gender positions. The body "violated", passive and penetrated, is "feminine"- the opposite of the "masculine" ones, the "active", that penetrates. This design underlines the erotic within the heterosexual matrix, which prevents thinking beyond or outside the limits of its rules. Following post-structuralist thinking on gender and sexuality, as well as queer theory, I wonder if we could try to deconstruct the erotic in other terms, in order to interpret anthropologically the practices, discourses and talks discussed here as potentially transgressive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a case study to analyze the means by which a processional ritual reinforces the tenets of a dominant model of motherhood. It explains how the process of motherhood, including pregnancy, childbirth and nurturing has been a core element in the creation of feminine knowledge. This knowledge has been strategically expanded to other domains of women's lives, such as social networks of solidarity, help or exchange of knowledge and experiences. The naturalization process, the concept of motherhood as feminine essence, and the creation of homogeneous and identical groups are reinforced and legitimized by a set of rituals and icons. In this paper I argue that the institutions that have invented or maintained these rituals have created an illusion of equality between men and women, therefore invisibilizing gender inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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