Economies of Flesh: Event-Led Urbanism and the Impact on Sex Work in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
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Economies of Flesh: Event-Led Urbanism and the Impact on Sex Work in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil by Ester Elizabeth Amanda De Lisio A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Exercise Sciences University of Toronto © Copyright by Ester Elizabeth Amanda De Lisio 2016 Economies of Flesh: Event-Led Urbanism and the Impact on Sex Work in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Ester Elizabeth Amanda De Lisio Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Exercise Sciences Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies University of Toronto 2016 Abstract Physical Cultural Studies has examined the extent to which a (sport) mega-event, like an environmental disaster, can facilitate the implementation of a “shock doctrine” (Klein, 2007) in which controversial policies, used to impose particular ideological ends, are pushed through in the wake of a cultural spectacle (Boykoff, 2013; Hayes & Horne, 2011), and the urban environment is created as a series of spectacularized spaces of leisure consumption, the ultramodern sanctuaries for bourgeois bodies (Belanger, 2000; Friedman & Andrews, 2011; Silk, 2013). The sentiment of shock or enthusiasm is used to distract from, and rationalize, the political-economic restructuring observed in a moment of crisis or celebration. At the heart of disaster (or event) capitalism is the need to facilitate accelerated capitalist expansion by reconfiguring the existent sociopolitical agenda. Celebration capitalism has been characterized by the emergence of a state of exception, unfettered commercialism, repression of dissent, questionable sustainability claims, and the complicity of the mainstream media (Boykoff, 2013). The manifestation of narrow, market-driven ideologies, coupled with the aggressive pursuit of growth- inducing resource material, has continued to foster resistance across host cities. In the current moment, FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) and the IOC (International Olympic Committee) have generated an increasing scale of dissent (Davidson, 2013; van Luijk & Frisby, 2012). Yet the overemphasis on resistance has detracted from the everyday realities of those stuck in the pseudoshadow of the mega-event spotlight. In my work I ask: How does the everyday react to the intervention of a mega- ii iii event? This dissertation focuses on the “lived experience(s)” of local women who embodied market- oriented ideologies to react entrepreneurially to a FIFA-crisis/celebration, in order to create and enhance their “survival circuits” (Sassen, 2009) within contested urban terrain. Through the collection and analysis of ethnographic data, I document stories of everyday life from women involved in sexual commerce in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during the 2014 FIFA World Cup to connect their “everyday” with larger social processes of global capitalist expansion, and demonstrate the manner in which these local women produce (un)intended/under-examined embodied physical cultural legacies associated with the sport mega-event. iii Acknowledgements & Apologies This acknowledgement section might precede the text but it was the final installation to this dissertation, and it was probably the hardest to write. I will be brief, as I know that writing an acknowledgement is an exercise in failure in front of those who matter most. It is fraught because the emotion — be it gratitude, appreciation, inspiration, discomfort — defies articulation, no matter the effort devoted. It will fail to find accurate expression on page. So it came last, and it will be succinct, though frequently rehearsed and recited, repeatedly rewritten, and continuously felt and expressed across a lifetime. To those who built the academic home in which I was so grateful to live and now refuse to leave — especially Caroline Fusco, Michael Atkinson, Bruce Kidd, Etienne Turpin, and Robert VanWynsberghe, as well as Danielle Di Carlo, Kass Gibson, Paloma Holmes, Patrick Keleher, David Marchesseault and Nicolien van Luijk — I would relive all the angst and frustration of a doctorate for even a minute of the counsel, laughter, and love I have known as a student, and will remain indebted to for life. As this house is made and remade, I am so confident in the foundation on which all professional loyalties rest. To those who miraculously made Rio de Janeiro feel like home for this small town gringa — especially Thaddeus Blanchette, Ana Paula da Silva, Gregory Mitchell, Laura Murray, Vanessa Rodrigues, Julie Ruvolo, Yaa Sarpong, João Sodré, Theresa Williamson, Gonçalo Zúquete and the women I met in the field — your relentless altruism and commitment to social justice (fantasies of a better, more equitable world) redefined exhaustion, enthusiasm, and will forever fuel me. To those who have made and maintained home, no matter the distance — especially my parents (Louise and Luigi), grandparents (Esterina and Luciano), siblings (Michael and Lara), nephew (John Luigi), family-in-more-than-law (Draj, Glenn, and Nicolas), and Laura — the homesickness I masked in the field served as a constant testament to the love I am so fortunate to feel, every day. I apologize for the concern I caused as I strove in pursuit of an excellence that was never demanded. And to Michael, the one who made it so difficult to be skeptical of love. It was his entrance, his absence, and the mere utterance of his name that broke down the rational empiricist within me. If I entertain abstract-theoretical imaginaries of futurity, it is he who has so often offered the concrete example in the everyday. iv v Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements & Apologies iv Table of Contents v List of Tables vii List of Figures viii List of Appendices ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Proem 2 1.2 Sociological Inquiry & Sexual Commerce 4 1.3 The Everydayness of the Sport Mega-Event 13 1.4 On Language 15 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Deviant Development: Event-Led Urbanism 20 2.2 Within the Shadow: A Historical-Geographical Overview of Prostitution in Rio De 30 Janeiro 2.3 Women and the Informal Economies of Brazil: The Quest to Become “Gente” 35 2.4 The Role of Ideologies and Fantasies in Subject and State Formation, and Social 39 Revolution 2.5 Metamodernist Performance of Love, and the Right to the City 43 2.6 Sexscapes of Rio de Janeiro and the 2014 FIFA World Cup: Methodological Prescript 46 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Entering the “Field” 53 3.2 Reading the Other 56 3.3 Talking to the Other 57 3.4 Observing the Other 62 3.5 Data Analysis 65 3.6 Presenting the Self/(Re)Presenting the Other 67 v CHAPTER 4: ROSA PEREIRA, MAKING LOVE/LOVEMAKING FOR A LIVING 4.1 Imitated Intimacies 78 4.2 The Phantasmagorical Impasse, Survival in the Everyday 82 4.3 Affexting: Metamodernist Sexting and the Question of Love 83 4.4 Closeted Identities, Fabricated Realities 88 4.5 Economies of Love, and the Accursed Share 91 CHAPTER 5: ISABEL COSTA, ATHLETICO-MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL-COMPLEX OR THE MAGIC OF THE STATE 5.1 Miseries at the Caixa 98 5.2 Miseries at the ALERF 101 5.3 Miseries in the Name of Amanhã [Tomorrow] 105 5.4 Miseries in the Everyday 109 5.5 The Not-So-Exceptional State 114 CHAPTER 6: GABRIELA GÓMEZ, THE (UN)MAKING OF THE INDEBTED (WO)MAN 6.1 Marx, Value, and Revolution 121 6.2 Fantasies of Futurity: Reproductive Futurism or the Search for Another Possible Life 123 6.3 The “Other” World: Lovemaking as “Divine Violence” 129 6.4 Debt Refusal as Everyday Defiance 132 6.5 Economies of the Flesh 135 CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION References 141 Appendices 163 vi vii List of Tables Table 1. Overview of the overarching research objectives, questions, and data sources Table 2. The (sport) mega-event in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil vii List of Figures Figure 1. Main entrance to Rocinha, the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Figure 2. Niterói, relative to Rio de Janeiro, with the Caixa indicated with a star Figure 3. Copacabana Sexscape: Help! (1985-2010); Balcony Bar (2010-2014); Mab’s Restaurant and Bar (2014-Present) Figure 4. Vila Mimosa, relative to the Maracanã football stadium, both indicated with a star. Figure 5. Inside a brothel/bar in Copacabana Beach Figure 6. Calm in Copa(cabana) amid Brazilian defeat to Germany Figure 7. Inside a brothel/bar in Vila Mimosa viii ix List of Appendices Appendix 1. The Caixa, Niterói Appendix 2. Niterói (Re)Development Campaign Appendix 3. Media Broadcast Centre in Copacabana Appendix 4. FIFA Fan Fest Appendix 5. Balcony Bar Appendix 6. Billboard in Vila Mimosa Appendix 7. Interview Guide Appendix 8. Data Analysis Appendix 9. Local Law Enforcement in FIFA Uniform Appendix 10. Vandalism at the Caixa Appendix 11. Niterói (Re)Development Campaign Installation Appendix 12. Satellite overview of Porto Maravilha Project, relative to Niterói Appendix 13. Ethical Protocol Approval Appendix 14. Informed Consent Documentation Appendix 15. World Cup Pamphlet Appendix 16. Audience at Balcony Bar ix 1 Figure 1. Main entrance to Rocinha, the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Approximately 150,000–200,000 people live within one square mile. Photo taken on March 16, 2015 by Amanda De Lisio Chapter 1: Introduction When children are locked up in a football club, younger and younger, exhaustively trained to be the next Ronaldo or Romário, this is not classified as exploitation. Children made to eat high-protein, artificial food; forced to follow a strict diet, and even stricter exercise routine. Run into the ground, never offered ice cream or a sweet. But this is not exploitation! This is sport. It is great for our national image! Great to have retired bodies, now fucked, torn from the inside out, sat like a puppet on some televised Globo panel. (Personal communication with a sex worker affiliated to Davida, May 22, 2014) On May 15, 2013, the famous Brazilian ex-futebol (football) player, Romário de Souza Faria, declared on national television that “O Brasil abriu as pernas para a FIFA [Brazil has opened its legs to FIFA]” (https://youtu.be/E-o54JOaenk).