Ii don’t engage in paid encounters! I facilitate pleasurable meetings”: experiential discursive ethé and male prostitution on the Garoto com Local

Abstract

Although male prostitution is still reduced to a sexual act and a ritual of body exhibition, I embark on the investigation of the role of discursive images projected around the affective-sexual experiences established among participants in the desirability regime mediated by fees, which unfold in multiple directions. Thus, I analyze the discursive constitution modes of self-images, discursive ethos, of male escorts on the "Garoto com local" website, comparing a corpus of 14 profiles. From a theoretical standpoint grounded in the notion of discursive ethos (Maingueneau, 1997, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2018) and studies on prostitution (Cruz, 2022). Through the analyses, it was possible to verify that the experiential images orchestrated by male escorts in a regime of enunciative-discursive volatilities, simultaneously give rise to more stable ethos (compassionate, sexually liberated, naughty, and intelligent) and hybrid ethos. In conclusion, the functioning of experiential discursive ethos unveils the plurality of modes in realizing prostitution in its subjectivity and desirability unfoldings, aiming to situate participants in the prostitution scene and individualize them among the coexisting male escorts on the site.