Condomless sex between gay men, also known as bareback sex, has been a popular object of research since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. One of the most common perspectives on studying bareback sex has been through a medicalization approach, as it may be observed notably with public health and psychology. In other instances, the abandonment of condom use is framed as an intentional act of resistance to public health. Through the methodological approach of ethnography, I studied how young gay men in their twenties from Toronto understand bareback sex in relations to popular discourses of the sexual practice. While my informants initially had a certain way of talking of bareback sex, their narratives on the sexual practice changed with time and challenged the common representations of bareback sex as either a site of resistance or medicalization, which I argue was possible because of the methodological approach of ethnography. During fieldwork, other themes also emerged in regards to shaping understandings of bareback sex and HIV as it relates to young gay men, such as the traumatic memories of an older generation who witnessed the earlier days of the AIDS epidemic. From this anthropological research, I seek to invite the opportunity to rethink the relationship between sex, biomedical science, and HIV.

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[pt] Esta dissertação visa apresentar os resultados de uma pesquisa qualitativa que considerou uma revisão bibliográfica e documental, além de dados oriundos de uma etnografia realizada na cidade do Rio de Janeiro, entre grupos de homens que se relacionam sexualmente com outros homens, todos praticantes do sexo sem preservativo – também conhecido como sexo bareback. Uma literatura especializada em gênero e sexualidade, boletins epidemiológicos e comportamentais e a observação de pequenos clubes masculinos privados dedicados ao sexo sem preservativo se constituem o campo desta investigação. No escopo deste estudo, destacam-se duas descobertas: a) a hegemonia de um corpo erógeno que ultrapassa o sexual no sentido biológico, e b) e a preponderância dos sentidos, em especial do sentido tátil, por meio de valores e significados atribuídos à pele. / [en] This study aims to present the results of a qualitative research that considered a bibliographical and documentary review, as well as data from an ethnography carried out in the city of Rio de Janeiro, between groups of men who engage sex to other men (MSM) without a condom - also known as bareback sex. A literature specialized in gender and sexuality, epidemiological and behavioral bulletins, and the observation of small private male clubs dedicated to bareback sex constitute the field of this research. In the scope of this study, two discoveries stand out: a) the hegemony of an erogenous body that surpasses the sexual in the biological sense, and b) and the preponderance of the senses, especially the tactile sense, through values and meanings attributed to the skin.