Os Cinemões do Centro de Fortaleza (CE): Uma Leitura Sobre as Dissidências Sexuais e de Gênero na Produção do Espaço Urbano

Abstract

The great movie theaters located in the Center of Fortaleza (CE), Brazil, emerge in the second half of the 20th century, enabling the socialization and experience of dissident sexualities from the city’s compulsory heteronormativity. We situate this emergence concurrently with the production of Fortaleza’s urban space, identifying that they are consolidated amidst a devaluated Downtown area as a venue that was destined to the elite’s consumption and entertainment. Field records, reports, and search on virtual social networks allow us to interpret great movie theaters as spaces where multiple masculinities coexist. Besides sexual desires, the great movie theaters harbor meetings between friends, exchanges of experiences, affections, and memories. When thinking geographically about great movie theaters, we move towards an open and relational interpretation of the space that allows us to highlight the multiple meanings found there.