Deixe-me (não) ver você: articulações entre espaço e iluminação na produção de desejos em uma casa de swing

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the use of the interplay between space and lighting in swing clubs as a resource to produce desires and sexual practices. The research focuses on analyzing a swing club located in the city of Balneário Camboriú, Santa Catarina. The research resources employed in this case study include a field diary based on visits to the location in 2023, information gathered from digital media about swinging, and conduct manuals targeted at the club’s audience. By questioning the conventional conception of swinging as an activity carried out by heterosexual couples, I seek to understand how interior spaces can facilitate or restrict certain types of desires and practices that deviate from normative boundaries. I argue that focusing on the materiality of swing clubs, understood as a technology of gender and sexuality, allows us to question the stability of binary categories, such as woman/man, feminine/masculine, heterosexuality/homosexuality, and couple/single.