Aprendiendo a “gatear”: masculinidades y carreras morales en varones que pagan por sexo en Argentina

The massification of feminism has put sexuality back into the spotlight, reviving the debate about prostitution. In this context, the anti-trafficking campaign holds responsible men who pay for sex, calling them “prostituyentes” and questioning their masculinity under the idea that “real men do not buy women”. However, there is still little empirical research. In particular in our region, the processes by which men who pay for sex have become regular customers have not been studied. From a virtual ethnography in two Argentine forums of sexual commerce and in-depth interviews with men who pay for sex, we propose to understand not only how a subject becomes a “client”, but –following the local jargon– how it becomes a “gatero”, that is, a client who recognizes himself in that position and is part of a community. Becoming a “gatero” involves a series of learning, internalization of patterns and values, in these processes we analyze different ambivalences and tensions that cross them. We seek to understand how an image of the self of these men is produced displacing from some mandates for the development of "manhood."