Politics of matter and politics of ontology

In the favela, coming out was not necessarily a process marked by a singular moment that coincided with the beginning of an independent adult life. It was not a matter of verbal identification, either, of clearly voicing one’s sexual orientation, desires, or subjectivity. Instead, queer liberation among my friends in Rocinha was deeply connected to the capacity of a bodily type of metamorphosis, either in the sexual use of the body … , in the cultivation of bodily elasticity, or through the deployment of clothing and other artifacts as means of transforming the body. In that sense, clothing is not a simple matter of identification through consumption, either. Following a perspective elaborated by Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and other ethnologists within a different minoritarian (Amerindian) context, I would suggest that “clothing” should be understood not as a superfluous item in queer life in Rocinha, but as privileged equipment for the expression of their liberation. More than an external layer to the body, the care and time Natasha and some PAFYC members dedicated to their outfits indicated that clothing and makeup were also part of their bodies—these bodily performances were inscribed with efficacious meanings as acts of minoritarian liberation.