Yes on economic inequality but it’s not just economics. culturally, in cities like Rio, bodies are veryyy public: beaches year round, sungas, gyms, carnaval, nightlife, bodies are on display and erotic attention.
It’s also dense everywhere..That density creates repeated encounters and exposure to other guys doing the same. A young man working near Copacabana, Ipanema, Lapa, or a tourist district may regularly meet foreigners, wealthier gay men, older patrons, or peers already involved in transactional sex. I mean i know men from brazil who are flewn out by american men to the states.
He learns that his body, masculinity, and charisma have value and a foreign demand. that’s why many of them are masculine.
economic vulnerability meets a culture that makes sexual desirability visible and a city structure that makes clients, tourists, and guys encounter one another constantly. and it repeats.
