Silicone is also culture: comments on Nestor Perlongher’s legacy

Abstract

In this article I reflect on Néstor Perlongher’s legacy, in a counterpoint between some aspects of his writing and his trajectory at the State University of Campinas, Unicamp, in São Paulo where he was a student and later professor. My aim is to articulate aspects considered in texts about his literary work and his political activism directed towards the promotion of homosexual rights in Argentina, his studies about male prostitution and the paths of this author in our university. I’m particularly interested in tracing his participation in the discussions that were relevant for Pagu, the Center of Gender Studies at Unicamp, highlighting the debates about sexuality and differences – that at that point we did not call gender nor intersectionality. I reflect about those paths taking as reference the time we spent together at the university and in public and intimate life, since 1984 up to his death.