“How the conventions travel...” – ethnographic notes on male sex clubs in São Paulo "Prepared for delivery at the 2012 Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, San Francisco, California May 23-26, 2012". Session name: Bad Sex II: Prostitution, Sexual Alterity and the Brazilian State in the Age of the BRICs. Camilo Braz. Professor of Anthropology – Faculty of Social Sciences. Center of Study and Research in Gender and Sexuality (Ser-Tão). Federal University of Goiás (UFG). E-mail address: camilobraz@gmail.com. Abstract This work is based on an ethnography carried out in male sex clubs in São Paulo between 2006 and 2008, and on interviews conducted with clubgoers and owners. The research, which spawned my Doctorate thesis, particularly aimed at discussing the recent segmentation of the sexual leisure market for men in the city and the performative valuation of attributes and stereotypes associated with virility. It also inquires about possible effects of this valuation on subjectivity constitution. In sex clubs, sexual practices and experimentations considered borderline, such as fist-fucking and other practices associated with BDSM, are material for specific and refined learning. Moreover, the interview speeches about condom, illicit recreational drug, and even alcohol use point out that these practices are subject to some sort of surveillance, especially when it comes to their “excesses”. This control provides sex clubs with a sense of legitimacy, making them part of a viable erotic market. My intention here is to point out how analytically interesting this control is, when it comes to the construction of subjects and bodies that matter in these venues. Like practices which evoke control or loss thereof, bodies and clubs also need to have their excesses kept under check so that they are both intelligible and desirable. Key-words: Gender – Sexuality – Masculinity – Body