Performing Seduction and National Identity: Brazilian Erotic Dancers in New York

This article examines the trajectory of Brazilian women who work as erotic dancers in New York City’s gentlemen’s bars. It argues that processes of globalization and transnationalism are related not just with political-economic transformations, but also to significant shifts in the ways people relat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Estudos feministas 2009-01, Vol.17 (3), p.769
Main Author: Maia, Suzana
Format: Article
Language:Portuguese
Subjects:
Colonialism
Context
Dancers
Decolonization
Economic change
Eroticism
Ethnic identity
Females
Feminism
Fieldwork
Globalization
Intelligibility
National identity
Political change
Politics
Positioning
Postcolonialism
Queens
Race
Seduction
Social identity
Translation
Transnationalism
Women
Womens studies
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Summary:This article examines the trajectory of Brazilian women who work as erotic dancers in New York City’s gentlemen’s bars. It argues that processes of globalization and transnationalism are related not just with political-economic transformations, but also to significant shifts in the ways people relate to each other, use their bodies, and conceive and realize their desires. Such transformations must also be understood in relation to a colonial and post-colonial regime, in which representations about their bodies gain intelligibility. Most of the women who participated in my research are from the middle-classes, and in terms of race, they self-identify as “morenas”. Based on fieldwork conducted between years 2004-2005, I analyze how their social positioning and identity are translated from one context to another, and how new social hierarchies are constructed in a transnational context. Taking as a focus of study Blue Diamond, a bar located in the borough of Queens, this article investigates how these transnational reconfigurations are articulated through particular relationships among dancers and between dancers and clients.
ISSN:0104-026X
1806-9584
DOI:10.1590/S0104-026X2009000300009