Months before the premiere of "Insensato Coração", which took place on January 17th of this year, numerous articles circulated on the internet stating that the new plot by Gilberto Braga and Ricardo Linhares would have a gay core. Little by little, the information was confirmed. There would be six characters representing diversity, but not in the same nucleus but, rather, spread throughout the plot.
The gay characters that permeated the popular imagination during prime time were: Rony Fragonard (Leonardo Miggiorin), Eduardo Aboim (Rodrigo Andrade), Hugo Abrantes (Marcos Damigo), Xicão Madureira (Wendell Bandelack), Araci (Cristiana Oliveira) and Gilvan ( Miguel Roncato).
Fieldwork
Despite the number of gay characters announced, before its premiere there was a doubt as to how such types would be approached in "Insensato Coração". When it debuted, the reception was more positive than negative. Since in the debut chapter, the character Ron, who was part of the main plot, had a scene alongside Natalie (Deborah Seco), where the two engaged in a dialogue that would set the tone for the rest of the story.
By exchanging slang like "bee", "ta boa" and "bafo", it revealed the authors' care in not making dialogues different from the everyday life of gays, which also showed that Gilberto Braga and Ricardo Linhares (with the help of the team, of course) They carried out fieldwork and reproduced, over the course of eight months, codes, gestures, clothes and types that can be found in any corner bar.
The authors also revealed great mastery in the way they handled the gay issue in the plot. In the first phase, the only character to be assumed was Ron, at one point viewers even doubted the appearance of other gays in the story. But, after the core of Florianópolis was dissipated and migrated to Rio de Janeiro, we can say that the soap opera was occupied by LGBT characters.
Advancement and homophobia
From the second phase of the soap opera onwards, the character Sueli (Louise Cardoso), Eduardo's mother, comes into play, who throughout the plot comes out of the closet and becomes involved with Professor Hugo. Edu's coming out had an interesting aspect in showing how an apparently progressive and gay-friendly woman reacts to learning that her son is homosexual. Initially, Sueli backed away and repudiated her son, claiming she feared for his safety. Later, she welcomed him and embraced the gay cause.
Owner of a kiosk in Copacabana, Sueli ends up transforming the place into a gay spot by decorating it with rainbow flags. The character Xicão also appears, a homosexual who lives on the outskirts of Rio, effeminate, but without being caricatured and with an affirmative, almost militant speech. And it will be at the kiosk that, towards the end of the soap opera, the character Gilvan (Miguel Roncato) appears, a homeless person who ends up being sheltered by Sueli and starts working at the cafeteria.
Aware of the growing homophobic attacks around Brazil, the authors of the soap opera addressed the issue of "pit boys" who gather only to attack homosexuals, a group that ended up being represented in the role of the character of Vinicius (Thiago Martins), who murders the character Gilvan. More than showing the limits of homophobia, Braga and Linhares portrayed the new profile of the homophobe: white, middle class and student.
It is also worth paying attention to the character Kléber (Cassius Gabus Mendes), an old-school journalist who does not accept homosexual behavior, but who, when faced with Gilvan's murder, uses his journalistic flair to put Vinicius in jail and starts to review his concepts. . As the character himself puts it: "not liking is one thing, now, I don't want to see anyone being killed like an animal because of their sexual orientation (sic)".
From the margin to the center
The great merit of the soap opera "Insensato Coração" and the treatment that the authors gave to the gay characters is in the fact that, definitely, at least in this plot, the characters left the margins and went to the center of the story with structure, function and narrative own. No character, no matter how quick the passage, did not just serve as support, but to show reality.
Many people were shocked by the scene in which Gilvan was murdered, but Braga and Linhares were courageous and showed Brazilian families who follow the soap opera that homophobia exists and actually kills. But the gay characters don't live through tragedy alone: Hugo and Edu will end the plot by signing a stable union with the right to a party at Sueli's kiosk on Copacabana beach.
It's true that the Globo network management ordered to cool down and cut several scenes between Hugo and Edu, which characterizes censorship and clear pressure from sectors of society who didn't like seeing those "abject" subjects so well represented on the "plim plim" screen. . The gay kiss didn't come either. But at a time when Brazil is facing one of the worst phases in terms of fundamentalist social and political advancement, a soap opera, which around 60 million people consume daily, did not fulfill its role by showing, within limits, characters gays with so much verisimilitude?
