Neither equal nor unequal. Principles of equalization and inequalization in Argentinean men’s love stories

MARENTES, MAXIMILIANO

Melbourne

Workshop; Pre-Congress Seminar for the VIII Worldwide Competition for Junior Sociologists; 2023

International Sociological Association (ISA) / The Australian Sociological Association (TASA)

This paper restore complexity to the analysis of equality in love relationships by studying the affective trajectories of Argentine gay men. Instead of conceiving equality by dispositional attributes that define the protagonists of the stories, I consider the mechanisms that introduce equity or inequality in a situation based on principles of equalization and inequalization. First, I reflect on two movements when asking for equality in male relationships with similar characteristics: the rectification of the question and the comparison as a contrast. Secondly, I describe the principles of equalization on the basis of which the egalitarian aspects of love bonds are translated into different spheres. Thirdly, I analyze the opposite mechanisms through which the inequality entered into the field of asymmetry and the principles of inequalization operate. I conclude on the need to think of equality not as something given but as something achieved, which characterizes people in relationships.