Adolescents, poverty areas, violence, and public health: an intersectional perspective

Adolescentes, áreas de pobreza, violencia y salud pública: un enfoque interseccional

ABSTRACT

Objectives:

to discuss the influence of urban poverty on the context of violence among adolescents from an intersectional perspective.

Methods:

the original research, of the action research type, analyzed data from 13 workshops. The participants were adolescents from both sexes, from 15 to 17 years old, from a public school in a peripheral neighborhood of São Paulo, SP. The methodological proposition of intersectional analysis guided the interpretation of the empirical material.

Results:

the intersection of class and gender may increase the (re)production of violence in some men. The intersection of race/color, social class, and territory contributes to the construction of narratives that naturalize inequality and, thus, justify discrimination.

Final Considerations:

there is necessity of new public policies that consider the social contexts and experiences of the subjects that stem from the articulation of social markers.

Descriptors:
Adolescent; Violence; Public Health; Gender Identity; Continental Population Groups

RESUMEN

Objetivos:

discutir la influencia de la pobreza urbana en el contexto de la violencia entre adolescentes bajo la perspectiva de la interseccionalidad.

Métodos:

la investigación original, de tipo investigación-acción, se analizó en 13 talleres. Participaron adolescentes de ambos los sexos, entre 15 y 17 años, de una escuela pública de un barrio de la periferia de São Paulo, SP. La propuesta metodológica de análisis interseccional dirigió la interpretación del material empírico.

Resultados:

la intersección de clase con género puede potencializar en algunos hombres la (re)producción de las violencias. La intersección de raza/color, clase social, género y territorio contribuye en la construcción de narrativas que naturalizan las desigualdades y, así, justifican las discriminaciones.

Consideraciones Finales:

son necesarias y oportunas políticas públicas que consideren los contextos sociales y experiencias de los sujetos resultantes de las articulaciones de los marcadores sociales.

Descriptores:
Adolescente; Violencia; Salud Pública; Identidad de Género; Grupos de Población Continentales

RESUMO

Objetivos:

discutir a influência da pobreza urbana no contexto da violência entre adolescentes sob a perspectiva da interseccionalidade.

Métodos:

a pesquisa original, de tipo pesquisa-ação, analisou dados produzidos em 13 oficinas. Participaram adolescentes de ambos os sexos, entre 15 e 17 anos, de uma escola pública de um bairro de periferia de São Paulo, SP. A proposta metodológica de análise interseccional orientou a interpretação do material empírico.

Resultados:

a intersecção de classe com gênero pode potencializar em alguns homens a (re)produção das violências. A intersecção de raça/cor, classe social, gênero e território contribui na construção de narrativas que naturalizam as desigualdades e, assim, justificam as discriminações.

Considerações Finais:

são necessárias e oportunas políticas públicas que considerem os contextos sociais e experiências dos sujeitos resultantes das articulações dos marcadores sociais.

Descritores:
Adolescente; Violência; Saúde Pública; Identidade de Gênero; Raça

INTRODUCTION

Violence is a worldwide public health problem. Around the globe, the number of homicides in men from 15 to 29 years old is of 18.2 per 100 thousand people(¹), and it is estimated that, every year, 200 thousand young persons die each year(²). In Brazil, violent deaths have increased significantly in the last ten years, especially among young, black or brown men, who live in peripheral urban areas(³) due to the lack of public policies to deal with social exclusion. As a result, social discrimination, strengthen by the articulation of social markers of difference, such as gender, class, and race/color, are reproduced(⁴).

Since 1990, the Statute of the Children and Adolescents mandates that the Guardianship Council must be informed whenever there are suspected or confirmed cases of violence against children and adolescents. This organ embraces and victims or relatives and refers them to the services that will attend them. However, in the scope of health, only in 2001 the Ministry of Health enacted the National Policy for the Reduction of Morbimortality due to Accidents and Violence(⁵). In 2011, the notification of violence through the System of Surveillance of Violence and Accidents (VIVA) was incorporated as universal and mandatory in all health services(⁶-⁷). This led to a greater precision and safety of the data on which epidemiological studies are based, functioning as the base for proposals to combat violence.

A systematic review study(⁷) analyzed the official records of violence against children and adolescents, finding that, although the collected variables allow one to discuss the magnitude of the problem of violence, the information on psychosocial aspects previous to violent situations is still lacking. In this regard, qualitative studies contribute and go deeper in dimensions of the complex and multidimensional phenomenon of violence involving young people. Furthermore, qualitative studies highlight that the systems of gender, race/color, and class in the peripheral urban territory are a conflictive field that, on one side, involves some young men in violent sexual and behavioral practices, and, on another, situate some young women under male oppression. These conflicting dimensions are paramount to elaborate, implement, and evaluate public policies related to violence and health for young people in these groups(⁸).

In this article, as we consider the different dimensions of violence, as well as the semantic range of the term, we use the theoretical postulates of Slavoj Žižek, who believes that there is an unbreakable link between power (domination), violence, and State action. In his theoretical formulation, Žižek(⁹) states that there are two types of violence: subjective and objective. The latter is further divided in symbolic and systemic violence.

Subjective violence is direct and visible. It is exerted by social agents in their daily lives and by the repressive apparel of the state. In this case, for example, there is juvenile violence. Young people either exert it or are submitted to it by State representatives such as the police, that is, these young people are either perpetrators or victims(⁹). In this type of violence, it is possible to identify the aggressor and the aggression committed. Symbolic objective violence, in turn is not visible. It pertains to language and symbolic classifications systems, to attempts to impose a certain universe of meaning. It is often not recognize as violence. Due to its invisible nature, it is fuzzier, and it is difficult to identify the aggressor. Systemic objective violence, on the other hand, results from the functioning of the economic and political system. It is sustained by the game of social relations ingrained in social institutions, based on power to impose and perpetuate and not being attributed to concrete subjects(⁹).

Therefore, considering the problem of violence in the context of young people in the urban peripheral areas, the following question is raised: Does the intersection of systems of gender, class, and race/color, whose pillars are discriminatory social structures, (re)produce violence in the daily practices of adolescents in the context of a peripheral territory? Up to what point do their experiences (re)produce inequality, with consequences for their own health and that of those with whom they are related?

OBJECTIVES

To discuss the influence of urban poverty in the context of violence among adolescents from an intersectional perspective, in order to strengthen new analyses of the implications of the expressions of violence among adolescents in regard to the (re)production of articulated discrimination involving race/color, class, and gender, and its impact in regard to health issues in this social segment.

METHODS

Ethical aspects

This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of its institution.

Theoretical-methodological framework and type of study

This is a qualitative study. The empirical material that supports the analysis goes back to a larger qualitative research: “Communication in health: action research for the elaboration of a mediatic program of education about drugs targeted at young people”(¹⁰).

We opted to approach violence using a theoretical-political option. From the perspective of Žižek, to the theoretical-methodological framework of intersectionality, which makes efforts to understand what is created in/by the intersection of two or more axes of oppression(¹¹), referenced by the social markers of difference. By “social markers of difference”, such as social class, gender, race/color, and generation, we understood all social constructions previous to the existence of the subjects, which are articulated in such a way as to produce more or less social inclusion, depending on the location of subjects in this systems of classification(¹²). Based on this interdisciplinary approach, we attempt to apprehend the complexity of identities and their relations with the inequalities that are materialized by the social structures experienced in the places of social localization of the subjects. The intersectional approach(¹³) is promising in the field of public health, since it does not emphasize the determination of phenomena on a simple economic base, but articulates it with other social markers, since many aspects of inequality, today, are recognized, and influence the daily practices of the subjects.

Study setting

The research was carried out in a public school in the district of Guaianases, in the city of São Paulo, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The institution attends young elementary school and high school students and provides education for young adults and adults. The school was selected because its pedagogical strategy includes working with the territory, making it possible for the residents of the region, students’ parents, and other social equipment to have an important role. The location, Guaianases, was selected because it is a peripheral area with the intense presence of social movements that include young people(¹⁴).

Data source

The investigation counted on the voluntary participation of adolescents from 15 to 17 years old, from both sexes, 21 men and 5 women, who identified with the theme of the investigation.

Data collection and organization

The study was carried out from February to September 2014. Empirical data was produced using workshops, group data production techniques in participative investigations, in groups with homogeneous characteristics. There were 13 workshops, lasting for nearly two hours each. Based on the central theme, “Being young in the periphery”, it was possible to discuss collectively other wide-ranged correlated themes, such as: drug use; leisure and socialization; health needs; the representation of the periphery and of young people in the different media and the influence of the media in the socialization of young people; strategies of these young people to confront inequalities(¹⁵). The empirical material produced made it possible to analyze the relation between these themes and the object of violence.

In the workshops, many resources were used to encourage and mediate the communication among the adolescents and with the adolescents, such as films, comic books, collages using newspapers, play-acting, in addition to the use of social network communication. To produce and systematize the empirical data of the study, the field diary was the technique used. In addition to this instrument, all workshops were recorded and filmed by the adolescents themselves during the presentation of dramatizations and synthesis(¹⁵). All materials were transcribed and analyzed later.

Data analysis

The empirical material was analyze from an intersectional perspective, and the four first steps of Winker and Degele’s propositions(¹⁶) were used, with no rigid limits between them. The authors suggest an intersectional multilevel analysis, articulating the dimensions of the construction of identity, the symbolic representations, and the social structure.

Step 1: aims to identify the participants in the process recognizing themselves and differentiating themselves from other subjects, bringing to light the stories of the adolescents in the social context to which they belong. Step 2: aims to identify the symbolic representations of the group, including consensus and disagreements about the categories of differentiation (class, race/color, gender, and generation) to analyze the construction of their identities. This step aims to identify the norms, values, and ideologies to which the subjects refer. Step 3: aims to establish associations between the level of practices and the symbolic representations that give them meaning, to discover norms, meanings, and values shared by the group, in an attempt to place them in relation to the social structure and object of analysis (violence). This constitutes a preliminary synthesis. Finally, Step 4 aims to implement a final interpretive synthesis of the object, articulating it with the differentiation categories considered (social class, gender, and race/color), and with the literature about the theme at hand: violence and the adolescents who live in the context of urban peripheries.

RESULTS

Considering the steps of the multilevel intersectional analysis(¹⁶), we started with a description of the participants. The adolescents have identified as residents of a precarious region, exposed to violence, immerse in the logic of consumption and of their coexistence, closer or farther apart, with drug trafficking, be it in school or in the region around it.

Being young [in the periphery] is having to kill a lion every day [...] it’s not having opportunities. It’s to be judged every day for being from a region that’s inferior to others. [...], the paychecks here are low. Being young here is very difficult, [...] there’s no place you can go for distraction. (Woman, Workshop 01)

[...] every other corner there’s people selling drugs, most are young. [...], so the thing is to sell drugs. This is what we live here, whether you want it or not. [...] because there’s no work. You want sneakers, you want some clothes. You can’t afford it, so you work selling drugs. (Man, Workshop 02)

For the adolescents, living in the periphery already characterizes them as socially excluded, according to the references of those who do not live in this territory. That is not without reason, as they mention that the region they live is labeled as a place for the “black” and “poor”. These labels seem to attach to their bodies, as they understand themselves as “black”, despite of their skin color. “Black”, therefore, is an arbitrary social mark attributed by others, ingrained in the participants. Another cultural marker, symbolic of identity, related to race/color and to the conditions of poverty and to the peripheral territory is the culture around Brazilian funk music. Brazilian funk music is mentioned as leisure, sociability, and belonging for these adolescents:

Here in the periphery everyone is black regardless of the color of their skin. (Man, Workshop 01)

If you take the funk out of Guaianases, there’s nothing left [laughs] [...]. If you see a boy coming back from school [...], you’ll judge the boy: he’s a good boy; but if you see a boy leaving a funk party you’ll say “this boy’s a lowlife”, because he’s at the funk party. That’s prejudice. (Man, Workshop 01)

Other socialization spaces mentioned were school, family, and social networks. Although funk is not the musical preference of some of the adolescents, they go to funk parties, showing that, despite the heterogeneous musical taste, the leisure practices are conditioned by the real possibilities of the territory.

Some teens prefer staying home, some prefer going other places, not going to the funk party. But, if there’s nowhere else, where will you go? You go to the funk party. If there was another option, I wouldn’t. [...] you go to the funk party, sometimes, because you like it, or because you have no other option. [...] Some like it, but some don’t. There’s no other place to go out to, so you do that. (Man, Workshop 01)

Using the opposition “us”, from the periphery, versus “them, from the rich neighborhoods, the participants stated that the adolescents from privileged classes participate in funk parties, but they do so in protected places that do not disturb the neighborhood. Therefore, there are dissonant references in regard to social class, place of residence, and social protection.

In the noble neighborhoods, the teenager [goes] to the funk party, it appears on the media, but they’re different. They don’t disturb anybody. They are not screaming and listening to funk at three a.m. in your street, using drugs at your porch, not letting you sleep. They go to a club o listen to it, it’s very different. They’re different. (Man, Workshop 01)

The labels such as “peripheric people” and “thugs” attributed by others, particularly by the police, is also an element in the construction of an identity of these adolescents. In many reports, especially from male adolescents, it stands out how violently and disrespectfully they are approached by police officers. The police, seen as one of the rare representatives of the State in the territory, is emphatically associated to violent responses to the behavior and leisure of adolescents and young adults.

The police invade the funk parties, they get there, so there are confrontations between the participants and the police. The police throw bombs and we throw rocks. I don’t mean us [referring to the group in the workshop]. (Man, Workshop 01)

Bringing this self-identification and differentiation elements for an articulation with stage 2 of the proposed methodology, it can be noted that, in the funk parties, the gender and class order (mentioned here as an access to the consumption of goods and social status) are instituted and expressed intersectionally. Young men considered as having “social status” are the most desired by the girls, meaning that this group of men had a form of power and assertiveness for the women. However, the lack of work opportunity leads to an exclusionary situation. In a perverse logic of exclusion, violence, with the presence of drug trafficking, being in a condition where one has to work in traffic, getting involved in theft and robberies, is naturalized as “work” by many participants in the research, especially male adolescents.

The rich gets there [to buy] with a credit card. You won’t see him taking money out of his wallet. He’ll pay with a debit card. (Man, Workshop 04)

[...] sometimes, the kid is called to deliver the drugs on the street, from one place to the other, even if they don’t use it, so they can have money. (Man, Workshop 08)

Because there’s no work, [...], there’s no conditions, so they end up stealing. (Man, Workshop 08)

In this context, the adolescents highlighted that the difference in power between man takes place according to the position they occupy in the different spaces in the territory, according to the local “social status” categories. For male adolescents, masculine performance is to be accepted as “macho” and violent. The statements of women adolescents about men naturalize and trivialize their violent experiences, as if “being violent” was a part of male sociability, which is different from the female universe in the territory. The report below corroborates the references to masculinity based on manhood and violence, which are culturally accepted in some segments of current society and cross social classes and generations, but are relative to the context of the power relations between men.

He, between us, thinks he’s all that, that he can tell everyone what to do, that he can beat up anyone. He can do whatever he wants. When he goes to the places that sell drugs and he owes money, he’s slapped in the face and says he’s sorry [...]. In jail, he becomes a lady, he becomes a lady. (Woman, Workshop 10)

Step 3 of the multilevel intersection analysis(¹⁶) aims to establish associations between the level of practices and the symbolic representations that give them meaning, to discover norms, meanings, and values shared by the group, in an attempt to place them in relation to the social structure and object of analysis (violence). This constitutes a preliminary synthesis.

At school and in the funk parties, the presence of adolescents and young adults who have been through violent experiences is common; some even had experiences in the prison system. As they describe their daily practices in the territory and talk about the practices of their peers, the adolescents highlighted the positive and negative aspects of the funk parties. In positive terms, they report that these are events in which socialization and collective participation provide direct and immediate satisfaction.

The positive side [of the funk party] is that everyone has fun. That’s important because the teenager has no other [leisure] option. (Woman, Workshop 03)

Regarding the negative side of the funk party, the extremely loud sound, the use of drugs, the encouragement to consume brand products, and the exploitation of the body of the women were emphasized. In what is called “ostentation funk”, this exploitation especially happens when some girls are “wasted”.

[...] The girl goes to the funk party, drinks and gets wasted. The boys don’t give a damn, they take her there, then she gets pregnant and doesn’t even know who the father is, and so what to do? (Woman, Workshop 01)

The daily practices of adolescents are indissociable from social structure. The class to which they belong, the place where they live, their race/color, and their gender are germane for the concrete possibilities of their existence. The media adds to this by reinforcing stereotypes that connect these adolescents to criminality and violence. As a reflection of this, and embarrassed by the social order and its oppressive structures, these adolescents say that they are “nobody” socially.

The media says that the east is a dangerous area, [...], for the media, being young in Guaianases is alcohol and drugs and violence. (Man, Workshop 01)

Where I live, or even here, in the neighboring areas, you’re nobody. If you’re leaving the funk party and you’re shot, your nobody, [but if] I’m leaving the school with a uniform and the police officer stops me, he knows I’m from school. (Man, Workshop 03)

To protect themselves against the violence, discrimination, and problems they face, these adolescents highlight the need for a better interaction between the people who live in the territory, as well as their participation in local social projects, so they can receive some response to their demands for better conditions for life, work, and leisure. As a protective measures, they emphasize the school uniform. Furthermore, they indicate religion, which, for some is a shelter against external violence; however, not even belonging to the local religious communities, mostly evangelical, guarantees protection.

A father that gives his all, shows the way to their kid, even he, sometimes, uses drugs. Like, the believers are caring, educated, but if you go to hail, most people there are sons of ministers, sons of people who go to church. The parents showed what is right and what is wrong, but still, they go to the wrong side due to the influence of their friends. (Women, Workshop 09)

Step 4 in the analysis, presented in the “discussion” topic, seeks to implement an analytical synthesis of the object, articulated with the categories of social differentiation considered in the study (social class, gender, and race/color). To do so, and considering the three previous steps of the analysis, that contemplate the dimensions of identity, social representation, and social structure, this final interpretive synthesis also dialogs with previous studies about the topic at hand: adolescents living in the context of urban peripheries.

DISCUSSION

The periphery is affected by the logic of surrounding society, which reaffirms that black, brown, and poor people are violent and criminal. From this perspective, some of the adolescents and young people tend to (re)produce violence in their daily practices, as well as in their associations with organized traffic. Consequently, they would be the target of situations of violence that take them to death or jail(³,¹⁷), with a negative impact on their health. This requires urgent action in the field of intersectoral public policies.

It should be highlighted that, considered in their contexts, the daily practices of adolescents and young adults are expressed in their social relations, and based on social positions in which differences are defined based on race/color; on the resources of the territory, in which the presence of the State is minimal in regard to providing services and access to universal rights(¹⁸); and on social reproduction(¹⁹). Therefore, their daily practices are not reduced to the exercise of their individuality(²⁰). Therefore, the adolescents and young adults, every day, go through the tension of trying to build life projects and transform them in reality under socially imposed conditions.

It is worthy of note that these adolescents are enthusiasts of the ostentation funk music, where there are less references to the daily life in the favelas, as it happens in funk from Rio de Janeiro(²¹), in favor of the valorization of consumption, brand products, and beautiful women(²²). This shows a contradiction in sociability, since people in this location have a difficulty acquiring these products(²³). They express that in the form of symbolic violence.

Regarding the funk party (one of the ways in which the adolescents who participated in the research socialize and find leisure), the media(²²) and some residents in the territory stereotyped and homogenized its organizers and practitioners as criminals. To this effect, laws were created to prohibit the use of sound equipment in public lanes, to prevent events such as funk parties(²⁴), which are carried out on the streets, using extremely loud sound.

Therefore, the public safety legal apparatus that criminalizes and attacks poor young black people in the peripheral regions is legitimated, and the intersection of the differences (especially race/color, class, and generation) that stratifies them socially leads them to experience violence in their moments of leisure. Considering the above, the adolescents expressed being affected by the symbolic violence in the discriminatory discourses that treats them as inferior due to the fact that they like the Brazilian funk musical genre. The same is done through subjective violence, be it due to violent relations in the territory among pairs or by those perpetrated by agents of the State, namely, the police.

Therefore, it is worth noting that the systemic violence of racism is present in the practices and in the punitive control of penal agencies. These prefer to criminalize the modes of expression of adolescents and young adults from the peripheral areas, externalizing the naturalization of racist practices by public powers, with the police in its historical role of compliance with slavers(¹⁷) being the support for this relation of domination and exclusion(⁹).

As an example of confirmed social exclusion, Brazil has passed the mark of 700 thousand people in jails in 2016. That year, there were 352.6 people arrested per 100 thousand inhabitants. 55% of them were young adults, from 18 to 29 years old, 64% were black and brown, and most were men(¹⁷,²⁵). These data corroborate the narratives of the participants, according to whom many students in the territory have been through the prison system and worked as drug sellers, a condition which increases the likelihood of the massive arrests of poor young black men.

It should be highlighted that the adolescents who participated in the research stated that a part of the girls, in the scope of the funk parties, participates in unprotected sexual relations and search for men that show power, as a way to exhibit social status. As highlighted by some studies, as there is a wide participation of women in the funk parties(²²), it is not rare for the lyrics of the songs to “objectify the body of women”, which goes back to sexual violence and unprotected sex(²⁶). Although this perspective from the funk parties show the conflicts and tension between men and women, studies have shown that women have active roles in the parties, and are an essential public for these events to be carried out successfully(²²).

As the reports of adolescents, men and women, show, it is in the spaces of socialization, permeated by conflict and contradiction, that social relations - and, therefore, the gender relations between young adults - are built(²⁷). In this context, in which the masculinity of adolescents and young adults is formed and put into effect according to the dominant standards of masculinity, a part of the adolescents and young adults reproduces shows of power, virility, and violence, as part of the norm expected from masculinity, although these findings cannot be generalized.

From this perspective, according to the findings of the study, the adolescents state that being a black man from the periphery is to be treated as inferior, suffering systemic and symbolic violence from the society due to social class and race/color(⁹). This could justify the multiple factors that associate them with the different types of violence(²⁸) and to a higher mortality, when compared with other segments of male young adults(³,¹⁹).

In their daily lives, the adolescents who participated in the study reported that being a peripheral young man is to be “nobody” in the social structures. Considering that a policy of fear and invisibility are cruel ways in which the State coerces these adolescents, they reiterate how exhausting it is living in poverty and under the pressure of the State and other institutions(⁹,²⁷) that do not recognize them as citizens. This exhaustion and pressure affect the physical and mental health of these adolescents, who, exposed to violence, are involved in prejudicial behavior, such as the consumption of drugs, unsafe sex, and involvement in violent situations(²). Furthermore, the study shows the situation of adolescents who, living in the context of urban peripheries, suffer stigmas and social isolation which are harmful to mental health(²⁹).

Due to the daily situations of discrimination and exclusion, the adolescents seek protective measures against the violence, but have no success. Regarding finding protection against the influence of their friends, the epidemiological studies are controversial in regard to the influence friends have over violent behavior in this segment(²⁸). Regarding religion, it brings no hope, since it no longer means absolute respect as it once did(⁹,¹⁹). Nurses and other health professional must recognize the circle of violence (re)production if they are to provide care to young people and get involved in the elaboration and implementation of social and health public policies, from the intersectional and intersectoral perspective. Furthermore, there must be less concentrated poverty in the territory as a measure of prevention(²⁹), and work and life conditions of those who live there must be improved.

Study limitations

A limitation of this study is the fact that it carried out an intersectional relation with adolescents from the urban periphery, making it impossible to broaden the dialog about the experience of adolescents from an intersectional perspective. The small presence of women adolescents in the workshops makes it more difficult to carry out more consistent gender analyses.

Contributions for the field of nursing, health and public policy

This study contributed for the field of nursing and public health as it uses intersectionality to understand the different types of violence suffered by adolescents and young adults in a peripherical context. Considering this reality and the relevance of the different forms in which violence and discrimination are experienced, impacting on the reproduction of social inequality and in the health of these adolescents(⁴), they should be invited to participate in the discussion of the problems that they face as citizens. Elaborating and implementing public policies targeted at the multiple social dimensions that affect the reality of the subjects and their concrete experiences can reach further results and more effective actions, especially concerning intersectoral ones.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

The analysis of the daily practices of adolescents in a context of urban poverty shows systems of social disadvantages that are interconnected, creating oppression that goes beyond the economic, such as oppression of gender, race/color, generation, and place of residence, all of which influence their experiences and (re)produce the violence and social discrimination they suffer.

The “social class” marker is translated, in the symbolic universe of the adolescents, as the lack of opportunity, low paychecks, and residence in a place of social exclusion with scarce leisure options. In this context, the narratives of some adolescents, especially men, establish close relations between some young men in the peripheral regions and drug trafficking, not to mention their involvement in thefts and robberies, alternatives seen as viable when they consider the lack of resources and that it is a way of becoming part of groups of local peers.

The resources from the practices associated with trafficking allow them to consume and flaunt them among these young men in the periphery. This dimension of the “being a young man” is intersected with the social marker of gender, that is, with the elements of the predominant standards of masculinity among men, which are based on virility, taking risks, and being involved in relationships of violence. These standards are locally exercised as a way to increase the likelihood of finding a partner of the opposite sex and as a way to have power over the women.

The participants talk that masculinity in part of the segment of young men in this territory is significant and show the power, virility and violence, reflecting a hegemonic pattern based on valuing consumption, famous brands and beautiful women. In this context, the asymmetric division of power between men and women is trivialized and naturalized, thus legitimating the violence against women expressed by demoralization, objectification, harassment, and physical and sexual violence(³⁰). Although these behavioral standards are present in the Brazilian society, they are riddled with contradictions and tensions that are part of a dynamic historic process which reconfigures the historical position of the subjects in these relations(³¹).

In the space of the funk party, race/color is intersected with social class and gender. Considering funk as a locus of experiencing young age in the territory, the expression of racism, intersected with the conditions of poverty in the peripheral areas, creates and supports expressions of youth in the periphery as a form of resistance(⁸,¹⁴). Simultaneously, it exposes the attributes that society uses to stratify and place these subjects hierarchically lower, naturalizing the inequalities and justifying race/color and class discriminations.

Therefore, as these discriminatory labels fix what it means to be young in the periphery (violent, criminal, dangerous, black), the dominant logic of “us” versus “them” perpetuates social segregation. These attributes are reflected on the mental health of these young people, as seen: violence, unprotected sex, pregnancy in adolescence, drug abuse. Therefore, nurses and other health professionals must have the necessary instruments not to provoke any more violence against these young people as they attend and provide care to them.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL

Health communication: action research to development of a media drug education program for young people, link: https://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/7/7141/tde-09112015-152548/pt-br.php

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Edited by

EDITOR IN CHIEF: Antonio José de Almeida Filho

ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Priscilla Valladares Broca

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  14 Jan 2022
• Date of issue
  2022

History

• Received
  20 Mar 2020
• Accepted
  15 Aug 2021