‘Esquinas” virtuais, “Garotas” nem tanto: um estudo sobre intercâmbios sexuais e econômicos negociados em plataformas digitais

Abstract

This research proposes to identify and analyze the affective-sexual and economic exchanges, as well as the experiences and strategies of women from Belém to transit in the virtual space of the sex market, widely affected by communicational transformations, driven by the internet. In view of this, the theoretical-methodological contributions used were, among others, the following: Donna Haraway, Adriana Pisciteli, José Olivar, Elizabeth Bernstein and Pierre Lévy. Methodologically, it is based on the observation of 467 advertisements displayed on digital platforms (F, G, N and S), used as “corners”. To this end, the rules and policy of use, the typification of services available, such as the profiles of advertisers, were observed during the period from January 2020 to July 2021. It is also supported by the ethnographic meeting with three cisgender women aged between 24 and 35 years, residing in the city of Belém do Pará, residents of the so-called “periphery”, with complete higher education, unemployed, or who experience their training profession in a precarious way, from December 2018 to September of 2020. The data indicate that the financial factor and the search for social ascension, are propellers for entering prostitution, as a temporary movement, which guarantees investment in professional qualification and the cost of their basic expenses, which is facilitated by the platforms where they publish their profiles, which present themselves as environments in which sexual services are negotiated. The research also shows how much the use of information technologies and internet access impacts even on sexual exchanges, affecting the way in which services are offered and which services are sought, allowing advertisers autonomy, convenience, security and discretion. In the provision of services. It is concluded that there is a continuum of permanence and reconfigurations in affective-sexual and economic exchanges negotiated in what I call “virtual corners”.