Brazil Sex in Strange Places

I'm in Brazil.

Sex is everywhere.

But are people as open-minded as they make out?

Oh, my God...!

Brilliant!

In a surprisingly prejudiced nation,

there is a light side we know about and a dark side we don't...

So there have been times

when you've had to have sex with 30 men a night?

..where selling sex is the only way to survive.

Welcome to a dangerous world,

where nothing is quite as it seems.

So you've still got your penis, right?

-Yeah.

-Where?

Brazilians are famous for being uninhabited and sexually open.

Oscar Maroni is one of the biggest stars

in Brazil's outlandish sex scene.

If this explicit video is anything to go by,

his club would appear to be heaven on earth

for the macho Brazilian male - if he can afford it.

I've been trying to meet up with Oscar for a couple of days now.

But he's been playing hard to get.

-Hello!

-Hello!

-Oscar!

Oscar, you were supposed to meet me here the other night.

I came and you'd stood me up.

Oh, my God...!

Brilliant!

Did you have fun?

I'm so pleased.

I can promise you that I won't be standing next to you

in a G-string any time soon.

-Sorry to disappoint you.

-OK.

-Can I have a look?

-Please.

-Thanks.

So this is, essentially,

a posh brothel, no?

How many times have you had sex in these rooms?

Do you always pay for it?

Is that something a lot of men feel here in Brazil?

I mean, some people, some women,

don't like to be referred to as "a conquest".

Some of us are independent. Some of us are bright.

Some of us are charismatic without having to have sex with everyone.

According to Oscar, anything goes in Brazil.

But his club is focused on the top-end straight sex market.

Rio has been voted sexiest place on earth on an LGBT travel site.

It's estimated there are over a million trans women in Brazil

and the vast majority are sex workers.

With more than a quarter of the tourists

who flood here every year LGBT,

Rio is trans central.

So I've found this VIP trans girl online

and this is her website.

So I just want to have a quick nose before I go and meet her.

OK, so I don't know how much of this you guys will be able to see...

..but it's like a...sort of amateur porn video.

But she looks the part. She looks...

..beautiful.

It is confusing when you first look at her,

because she is so obviously feminine.

You know, from the waist up.

And then, from the waist down, it's like, "Whoa!

"Your penis is massive!"

But...

there you go. That's what she looks like.

I can't wait to meet this girl.

Hello! Aninya?

Hey, how do you do? I'm Stacey.

Aninya is 21 and one of Rio's most popular trans sex workers.

Before we even start talking, she has a client on the phone.

-No, you can take it.

-OK.

-Is that a customer?

-Yes.

-They want you now?

So how many clients have you had today so far?

So many of them are married men?

Really?

Wow.

This is Lapa, where Aninya started out three years ago.

It's the go-to place in the city for trans sex workers.

One of the reasons I've been given access

is because my star of a driver Antonio is a cabbie

and he's been taxiing in Lapa for about 15 years.

So he's got a really good relationship with the girls.

Hello!

How are you?

You're friends?

I'm Stacey.

-What's your name?

-My name is John.

-John?

-Yes.

-John?

-John.

-Ah!

Antonio is your friend?

Yes. I know him a long time.

-Ten years.

-Oooh!

-Yes.

And you've been working this strip for a decade selling sweets.

You must have seen some sights.

Ciao!

Ciao!

-Would you speak to us? Would you mind talking to us?

-Yeah.

Where are you working? Up the road?

-Ah. Do you like it?

-Si.

Are you passive or active? How...?

-So you just take it, right?

-Yes.

Yes.

-Why don't you give it?

-Oh, no!

What do you get paid more for, being active or being passive?

Yeah. So you're earning slightly less than some of the girls.

Oh. OK.

Ciao.

Do you know the girls?

Yeah? Have you ever...?

No?

-No.

-No.

MAN SHOUTS

He's laughing at you.

He's saying that you are.

Are you two friends? Amigos?

Your relationship with the girls,

is it strictly professional

or have you had sex with them all, like your pal says?

What is it about the transgender girls that you love so much?

So are their blow jobs better than straight biological women's?

Yes?

And he said, "Si," as well. You've had a blow job off the girls?

Yes, he has.

Yes.

Better than straight biological women?

Why? What's the difference?

And you've said that you've slept with loads of the girls.

Do you...?

Do you shag them up the arse or do they have sex with you up your arse?

In your mind, when you're having sex with these girls,

these trans girls, what are you thinking?

Are you convincing yourself that you're having sex with a female

or do you not mind that they have a penis?

What's the train of thought?

And how would you boys describe yourselves?

Are you gay? Are you straight? Are you bi?

I've had a call from Aninya.

Are you OK?

She's got a client coming later, but says we can talk before he arrives.

Hey...

Thank you.

-Ciao.

-Ciao.

Is that your boyfriend?

How long have you been together?

So can I have a quick look around? Is that OK?

Ah, OK.

Can you explain to me a little bit about how you work personally?

How many customers, typically, do you have a day?

Seven days a week?

Yes. Si.

You must be exhausted!

Can I see some more of your uniform?

And can I ask you, I know you still have your penis.

Where do you put it in this?

Oh, I can see what you're saying. Yeah.

I leave the room to let Aninya get ready for her client.

Whoo-hooo!

Wow! What a vision!

You look amazing.

Really lovely.

And can I ask, where is your penis?

-Have you tucked it up?

-Yeah.

Wow.

Because even, like, this close,

I would never know that you've still got a penis.

OK, so, when a client arrives, what exactly will happen?

What was he like? Was he nice?

I'll bet your boyfriend's not so keen

on you having loads of customers like that.

And when you two first met, did he realise that you were transgender?

I guess honesty is always the best policy

when you're trying to start a relationship.

Aninya's client has just arrived. So I leave her to it.

Aninya's just texted.

So, 15, 20 minutes max after I'd left her,

a picture of the lad getting dressed

and underneath she's put, "Finished!".

And I guess, for her, it will then be on to the next one.

I think she's really fascinating,

because there doesn't seem to be a great emotional attachment,

in terms of her work.

I think she's very business orientated.

Which is totally fair enough, you know?

She's worked hard to get where she is now.

SAMBA MUSIC PLAYS

I'm in the north of Rio to meet another trans woman.

She's a samba dancer and tonight it's her birthday.

Hello! Barbara!

How are you?

Happy birthday!

I know.

Hello!

Nice to meet you.

Barbara is one of the first trans women

to become a lead dancer at Rio's most famous event - the carnival.

And her samba mates have shown up for her party tonight.

It makes talking to her pretty difficult.

I feel slightly underdressed.

I've had an amazing time.

And Barbara is an utter gem.

She is so, so lovely.

And all her pals have been amazing.

But I would like to have a chat with her away from all the chaos,

because I bet she's a really fascinating character.

Barbara lives with her grandmother in a working-class neighbourhood

on the outskirts of Rio.

Hi. How are you doing?

Lovely to meet you.

Oh, wow!

Look at this!

My mother doesn't have a picture of me like this in her living room.

These are all from samba?

So this was last year's carnival?

Uh-huh.

Despite being one of the lead dancers at the carnival,

Barbara only gets paid during the samba season in the spring.

It's the off-season now

and she feels her only option is to make money doing sex work.

Barbara is not alone.

90% of trans women in Brazil

find they can't make a living any other way.

So you're still having to prostitute yourself.

Where are you working now?

I mean, for me, it's just been a pleasure

to get to know Barbara a little bit more.

You know what I mean?

Like, I mean, on the one hand, she's this extravagant,

larger-than-life, confident character.

Especially when she's with her pals

and she's dancing and it's samba time.

She's in her element.

But there is a completely different side to her,

where she's very vulnerable and she seems quite frightened

and she feels like she doesn't belong to society...

..you know, as a trans woman.

Life is just so much harder from the get-go here.

And if you're a sex worker, it's even harder still.

Although Brazil has more trans sex workers than anywhere in the world,

there are plenty of non-trans sex workers here, too.

The largest red light district in Rio is Villa Mimosa,

where up to 1,000 girls work every night.

This area is controlled by a local armed militia,

who operate above the law.

I do not want to piss anyone off around here.

Brazil has the highest number of murders anywhere in the world.

So it's not a place to push your luck.

Off I go. Thank you.

We've been told no-one has ever openly filmed here before.

And it's not long before we attract attention.

There's a warning out against us?

-Erm, yeah.

-How serious is the warning?

-Well, that's what we've got to figure out now.

-OK.

So shall we just not do anything for the moment?

We should wait in the car for the moment.

A first warning is verbal.

A second means they'll break your legs.

And the third is final. They'll kill you.

These are the two security guys.

After some negotiation, the militia give us two men who will take us in.

One of the bar owners lets us in.

She has ten rooms upstairs

that she rents out in 20-minute slots to the girls.

She introduces us to Viviane, a regular in her bar.

Viviane is 25 and a mum of two young boys.

She works here over the weekend

and looks after her kids during the week.

So this is one of the rooms where the guys come to have sex.

Oh, you've got a fan at least.

Yeah, because it gets hot in here.

So, look, this is one of the beds...

This is tiny, Viv.

I couldn't even lie down in here.

This is the whole thing?

Whoa...

And two of you... It gets a bit cramped.

Shit.

I probably just got pregnant lying on that, lying on that bed.

Thank you. Thank you.

How many men can you sleep with a night, roughly?

So there have been times

when you've had to have sex with 30 men a night?

Is that not sore?

And explain to me, how does it work?

Like, is Carla your pimp?

Do you work for the bar? Explain to me.

Viviane's like a perfect example of so many girls here in Villa Mimosa.

You know, it's circumstantial.

She's got two kids to feed.

And there's no other way

she can make this type of money this quickly.

For me, what I find fascinating is that she's saying

she hasn't got a pimp.

So she doesn't have to answer to anyone.

She's completely self-employed.

And back home, all the prostitutes, all the sex workers

that I've spoken to always have, like, an authoritative figure.

Carla, the bar manager, agrees to talk to me upstairs

about how her place operates.

So this is it, the office.

Cor, it's clever, isn't it? Wow!

Can you explain to me exactly how it works?

How do you run your bar?

My understanding is that brothels here in Brazil

are completely illegal.

So how are the police allowing you to continue to run?

You know, are you living an extravagant life

off the back of these girls?

Or are you struggling just as much as some of them?

Straight sex workers in Rio mostly work in bars like Carla's.

But the prejudice against gay and transsexual prostitutes

means they are banned by the macho militia.

So most of them have to work on the streets.

Barbara, the carnival dancer,

has rung to say she's got to go streetwalking tonight.

Where's your grandma, asleep?

Is it possible for me to come?

Do you think there will be many clients out this evening?

And, Barbara, I know you don't love

having to go out and work on the streets.

Why do you have to go out this evening?

How much, ideally, do you need to make this evening?

Oh, my sister.

Come on, then.

Barbara's been at a samba event this evening

and has left it late to go to work.

It's gone two, so she'll only have a few hours

to find the clients she needs.

Lovely to meet you. I'm Stacey.

-Nice to meet.

-Have you been busy, yeah?

How much have you made?

OK. So 450 this evening in total.

Well, Babs was saying she's in a rush

because she needs to make some dough tonight before the sun comes up.

Hi!

Are you Monique?

Barbara says Monique protects the girls who work on the street.

Hello. How are you?

Yeah?

Here she is in all her glory.

I feel like the Spice Girls have been reunited!

How long have you been working on the streets?

Brazil has the highest murder rate of trans women in the world.

Their average life expectancy here is just 30.

But without going on the streets,

Barbara won't be able to pay her bills.

They're going off.

Babs has just taken that guy around the corner.

I think he wants a blow job, but I don't want to go too close

because I don't want him getting the hump and then not paying her.

I'm pleased for her that she's got someone.

I can't believe how quick it was.

-Finished?

-No.

What's wrong?

What's wrong?

Barbara, I feel like I can be honest with you.

Sometimes it seems like the girls put on this performance,

it's like a sort of theatrical show.

"Everything's fine, this is great, we're so glam."

But the reality is,

you know, there's extreme violence out on the streets.

Some of the girls have been killed.

You don't know whether you're going to make it home sometimes.

It's hard.

Aninya, the trans worker I first met on Copacabana,

has invited me to meet her family back home in Sao Paulo.

With a population of 27 million people,

it's the biggest city in Latin America.

Just 400 kilometres from Rio,

it feels a million miles from the strip

where Babs is plying her trade.

While the rest of Brazil

is heading into the worst recession for over 100 years

here, in the financial capital, there is still money to be made.

If you're in the right place,

a sex worker here can earn up to £6,000 a month - more than a judge.

Oscar Maroni has called to say I can visit the Bahamas Club

during opening hours.

Hello.

His son lets me in and takes me up the back stairs

so the customers don't see me.

-I'm Stacey.

-Nice to meet you.

-Likewise.

-Very nice to meet you. You're Oscar's son, right?

-Yeah.

I've heard a lot about you.

-Thank you.

-Go upstairs.

It's really just a posh version of life at Carla's bar in Villa Mimosa.

Oscar simply rents the rooms to the girls

to use for sex with their clients.

I'm told I'll have to wait here

until one of the girls is willing to come and speak with me.

-Hi!

-Hi!

Wow, look at you! You look amazing.

A girl called Lara agrees to have a chat.

She's only been working here three months.

So tonight wasn't really a huge success for you financially?

No, no.

-But last night was good.

-OK.

How many did you have last night?

Two. Two guys.

I got about 1,500.

-Just last night?

-Yeah.

-From two people?

-Two people.

So you've been here for three months.

Where were you working before here?

I had a stationery store.

-Really?

-Yeah.

Yeah. And I didn't get the money to pay the rental.

-So you thought, "I have to find fast money"?

-Yeah.

I just called here and asked, "Do you need some girls today?"

"Come here. We can talk."

So I came here and, "Oh, you're good.

"Why don't you try to meet some guys here?"

And it was good for me.

I have my plans. I don't want to be here all my life.

I have a kid.

I have a daughter.

-Wow. How old is she?

-Nine.

Nine years old.

-Does she know what you do?

-No.

Anyone in my personal life know what I'm doing.

Just one guy.

Just my best friend knows.

But I have a boyfriend.

-No?

-Yeah.

-And he doesn't know?

-No.

-Lara, really?

-Yeah.

That's difficult for you.

Oh, a lot.

Too much. Too much.

It's too hard for me thinking things about this.

But I have to do this.

It's not too long is my plan.

Don't be for too many times here.

You're here really because you needed the money.

-Mm-hm.

-Not because you enjoy this.

-Yeah.

But your boyfriend has no clue.

So he's thinking, "Oh, we're going along as normal.

-"She's not seeing anyone else. We're in love."

-Mm-hm.

And all the while,

-you've got this whole secret life going on, essentially.

-Yeah, yeah.

We have to have secret lives here.

Do you feel bad on your boyfriend?

There are many nights when I lay down with a guy

and I just think, "Oh, my God, what am I doing here?"

I just don't want this for my daughter.

I just want to stay with my boyfriend.

I don't want to stay here all the nights,

thinking about making money

and lay down with the old guys, ugly guys

and things like this.

My head is just a mess.

Uh-huh.

Don't make me cry!

Oh, don't cry.

Oh, thank you.

I need this sometimes.

-Oh, I bet.

-Thank you.

When you cover controversial subjects,

there's always the same spiel that you hear time and time again.

And I think she just spoke directly from the heart.

Like, "Of course it's a struggle.

"Of course it's sending me loopy.

"Of course it's, you know, having a huge impact on my personal life."

And I think sometimes you can get carried away...

..when you hear the huge amounts of money that can be made.

But it's like dancing with the devil, because...

..you know, it comes at a price.

And it's whether or not you think you can deal with that.

I don't think I could.

I'm not sure Lara's macho boss Oscar

understands the emotional turmoil

that some of the girls are going through.

I'm meeting him for another chat at his penthouse.

Why have you got Paris in your living room?

From our previous conversation,

Oscar has some bizarre ideas about women.

I wonder if he has any clue what goes on in the heads

of some of the girls who work in his club.

There's no doubt that you are a very liberal, very free,

very inquisitive sexual being.

But you also seem fairly bright.

Surely you recognise that some of them are there...

..because they have to.

Financially, they've been forced to.

You say the girls are really happy when they come to work,

but obviously, they're going to act happy because it's a show.

You know, it's a parade.

They need to look like they're raring to go,

so that, you know, they get the customers.

Do you think that there are certain women

who don't love sex

and they don't want to be there

and they're only there because they have to

and not everybody experiences the Bahamas

in the same way in which you do?

For Oscar, it's simple.

The money the girls earn must make them happy.

I know this isn't always the case.

Aninya has invited me to Sunday lunch with her mum and sister.

She makes plenty of money from sex, no doubt about that.

But does it make her happy?

So I'm en route to Aninya's mum's house.

She's on the surrounding areas of Sao Paulo

and her favela is one of the poorest around.

Hello!

How are you?

Are you OK?

You look lovely.

Aninya left for Rio two years ago.

And only gets to see her family every six months.

When she was growing up, she was known as Felipe.

Her mum lives in a favela run by drug gangs,

not the easiest place to come out as a trans woman.

So, Mum, I wanted to try and understand

how you reacted to the news

when you found out that Aninya was going to transition.

And was there ever a period

when you had to hide what you were doing?

Was it a secret for a while?

Although Aninya has left her home town behind,

her family weighs heavily on her mind.

Aninya was telling me that you've been a bit poorly recently.

How are you doing now?

Have you been able to work since you were diagnosed with depression?

Aninya has told me she doesn't want to talk about her work

in front of her family.

She wants to explain why away from the house.

I know you didn't feel that comfortable

talking about what you do for a living around your mum's house.

But she does know?

You just prefer not to discuss it so openly?

In your profession,

you are really outlandish and really outgoing

and you talk so explicitly about what you do.

Around your mother, you're very conservative and very respectful.

Two different characters.

It's so interesting seeing this different side to Aninya.

Her life here couldn't be further from glamorous Copacabana.

And it's clear now the main reason she needs to earn the money she does

is to support her mum.

SAMBA MUSIC PLAYS

It's my last day in Brazil and I'm back in Rio.

Before I leave, I'm catching up with Barbara at samba practice.

This is the first full rehearsal of the season.

And Barbara's just been given the news

that she'll again be one of the lead dancers at next year's carnival.

I'm so pleased I saw you tonight.

How was practice?

And your pals here,

do they have any idea that sometimes you have to work on the street?

Oh, Barbara I hope, I think so, too.

I hope so.

I don't know anyone who deserves it more than you.

Uh-huh.

Don't get upset, OK? No tears.

Well, you're my mate.

You're my Brazilian BFF.

And I think you're amazing.

And I really rate you for still staying so positive

and so optimistic,

even though I know sometimes your life is hard.

SAMBA MUSIC PLAYS

When I first arrived in Brazil, it felt like a breath of fresh air.

People here are uninhibited and sexually open.

Being a sex worker is legal and some have safe places to work.

But even in a seemingly liberal society like Brazil,

I've discovered that there's such a taboo around selling sex

that it doesn't matter how much money you earn

or how safe you can feel,

the double life you have to lead as a sex worker is incredibly tough.