“Turn your neck the other way”: stories of affections and love between lesbian in Manaus/AM (Decade 80 and 90, century XX)

Abstract

This article aims to historicize the forms of affection and deep love in the experiences of black and afroindigenous lesbian activists Francy Junior and Sebastiana Silva in Manaus, in the last decades of the twentieth century. For this purpose, Oral History as a methodology was used, which contributes to the tracking, gathering and analysis of the narrated memories of individuals and the recording of their personal impressions and participation in historical events, reaching subjects such as daily life, education, social relations, forms of activism and the presence of affective-sexual relations, thus recognizing the harmful effects of patriarchy and compulsory heterosexuality, which hinder the addressing of passions among women, lesbianity being a component capable of destabilizing structures of oppression. Thus, we propose to contribute to the turning point in the history of oblivion of lesbians, especially black and afroindigenous lesbians who are/have been silenced by the intersection of social oppressions, possibilities for other individuals to narrate their memories and these to be analyzed historically.