Relatos sobre o câncer (ou HIV?):

Reynaldo Gianecchini, entre o testemunho e a confissão

Abstract

On February 27, 2012, still under treatment for a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, actor Reynaldo Gianecchini was interviewed by Época magazine and asked about his sexuality and rumors that he was ill due to AIDS. Our main objective is to analyze how such suspicions about their sexuality were part of that interview and to show how such distrust contributed to the construction of a causal link between possible sexual relationships with men and the illness caused by AIDS. We understand that this suspicion has been part of the stigmatization process of male homosexuality since the explosion of the AIDS pandemic in the 1980s. This type of questioning is part of the very device of sexuality, which seeks to regulate, classify and hierarchize bodies and pleasures. In theoretical-methodological terms, we make a foucauldian discursive analysis regarding the confessional imperative in the media of the sexuality device, which incites subjects to testify about their sexual life in order to simultaneously reveal the truth about the sex and its secret. In the end, we compared this interview with the one in which he is assumed to have had relationships with men in 2019.