{"id":93,"date":"2014-04-23T00:29:57","date_gmt":"2014-04-23T00:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/library.brown.edu\/beyondcarnival\/?page_id=93"},"modified":"2014-04-23T00:29:57","modified_gmt":"2014-04-23T00:29:57","slug":"increased-visibility","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/beyondcarnival\/chapter-6\/increased-visibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Homosexuality in Pop Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

By late 1960s and early 1970s,<\/strong> international countercultural ideas held significant sway over Brazil’s urban middle-class youth. Among the counterculture’s many challenges to societal norms was the destabilization of sexual codes and gender norms. As traditional insistence of premarital virginity and normative heterosexuality became\u00a0regarded\u00a0as antiquated and\u00a0repressive, Brazil’s biggest stars projected unabashed sexuality and were rumored to have homosexual affairs. Singers such as Caetano Veloso and Ney Matogrosso presented themselves as androgynous, gender-bending performers and raised important questions in society about gender roles and identities. Indeed, the overwhelming popularity of such performers reflected a growing societal acceptance of deviance from traditional Brazilian constructions gender and sexuality.<\/p>\n

Songs like Caetano Veloso’s “Le\u00e3ozinho”<\/strong> (1977), an intimate ode of physical and emotional admiration for another man, exposed Brazilian listeners to a form of same-sex attraction. Interestingly, the song is off Veloso’s album “Bicho” and is accompanied by other songs such as “A grande borboleta.” Click here for a 1897 interview with Caetano entitled “Caetano Veloso, the Most Popular Singer\/Songwriter in Brazil, Talks About Music, Sexuality, AIDS, and Creating a New Pop Nationality<\/a>“, and see below to listen to a recording of “Le\u00e3ozinho.”<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=OXsJsDQBExQ<\/p>\n

Ney Matogrosso<\/strong>, on the other hand, was far less subtle in his subversion of traditional notions of gender and sexuality. Ney often sang entire songs in falsetto, used dramatic makeup and exotic costumes, and danced in a style that was as traditionally feminine as it was traditionally masculine. In 1978, Ney clarified his homosexuality in a magazine interview, and, in the face of\u00a0widespread homophobia, he remained one of Brazil’s most famous celebrities. Below is a video of Ney performing in 1973 as the lead singer for the group Secos e Molhados.<\/p>\n