O blog de Lola Benvenutti : práticas identitárias de uma puta de luxo na internet

Abstract

Prostitution is a subject that disturbs any society. Each one, on its own manner, has a way of silencing or hiding such theme. Are those women, who (at some point in our lives) we see in the streets looking for customers, na accurate, generalizable picture of the profile of prostitution on Brazil? Definitely not. This might be one of the few things our qualitative approach research (DENZIN and LINCOLN, 2006, p. 19) can clearly assert. Prostitution has always been plural, and the Brazilian context provides for the rise of social actors such as Lola Benvenutti. Instead of the half-shadow from the street corners, Lola is online, in several social medias and with several appearances on TV shows. Describing in detail her sexual encounters, playing with her fans’ fantasies, she keeps her blog speaking of herself, with no middle-men. Lola disappoints those Who look for sad stories that may explain her entry on prostitution. She stands for a whore profile very different from what many of us are used to. Although her posts bring prostitution as a lifestyle (BAUMAN, 2004; BERNSTEIN, 2007; BOURDIEU, 2007), they are at the same time endowed of discursive resources which motivated my to prepare this research. Unlike many available works on prostitution, I strain to allow that Lola speaks for herself. To do that, the data used call for a theoretical framework that dialogues with social practices, which assumes the possibility of emancipation and that does not isolate in itself. For the main goal of this work, I chose the Critical Discourse Analysis (FAIRCLOUGH, 2001; 2003; FOUCAULT, 1977; 1993; 2001; WODAK, 2008). Far from seeking answers, this work looks for dialogue. It aims to understand how several elements from hegemonic discourse – and sometimes even from voices that claim to fight it, such as those from feminism – cope with prostitution nowadays. Are they able to dialogue with these women? How do they understand the entry of a woman in prostitution? As a way of empowerment? As victimization? Lola Benvenutti enriches this debate and allows us to develop this research, in order to get the point of view of a whore before the hardships of her work.