Homoeroticism and Masculinities: Approaches to HIV/AIDS in Spartacus Magazine (1987-1990)

Abstract

The HIV/AIDS epidemic has had effects on the homosexual population, impacting the movement to fight for rights and generating a second wave of demands. With regard to the press aimed at this audience, there was also a multiplicity of vehicles considered as “homoerotic”, which sought to inform about the disease so as not to stigmatize sexual relations between men. In this context, the magazine Spartacus was published, circulating between 1987 and 1990 and publishing a column called “The doctor answers”, which answered readers' doubts about health and sexuality issues. The aim of this article is to discuss how the periodical addressed these themes in its texts and its relations with the social context of that time, which was marked by a stigmatization specially of male homosexuality. In this scenario, the mainstream media and the federal government published so-called “alarmists” about the disease, without much data on prevention and awareness. The aim is, therefore, to understand howSpartacus positioned itself in this context, since its target audience was a population directly affected by the epidemic. For this research, we start from the assumptions of the History of the Press, the History of Gender and Sexuality Relations and the History of the Present Time.