Station: the approach to Cruising Bar in Camilo Braz’s thesis

A abordagem sobre o Cruising Bar na tese de Camilo Braz

Abstract

This article makes a brief analysis of the presentation, information, representations and observations about the Station bar: a Cruising Bar that served as one of the research fields for professor Camilo Braz's doctoral thesis. We will discuss the differences between the Cruising Bar in relation to other places researched, with special attention to the definition of a Cruising Bar as a unique place rather than just a “sex club”. The ways in which the author presented the place, its audience and its physical constitution are analyzed, with the provision of private cabins for sex as one of its main differences. We advance in some elucidations in the light of socio-anthropological theory, intersecting with other ethnographies on spaces for “making out” and sexual interaction between men. Given the novelty of Braz's research at the time, we believe there was a certain lack of definition in the meanings and approaches to the place. Something that we boldly intend to help correct based on current knowledge of this ecosystem. Finally, it discusses how, although very distant in time, Station was the precursor to the Cruising Bars boom that would emerge years later in Brazil.