Sexuality of Santos Dumont
The controversy over Santos Dumont's sexuality has long been discussed, including by his biographers, since the Brazilian aviator was never married and, in addition, maintained an always well-groomed appearance, refined manners and was rather shy.[1]
Asexual?[edit]
One of Santos Dumont's first biographers, Gondin da Fonseca, wrote categorically in the preface to the third edition of his 1956 book Santos Dumont:
"In the preface to the first edition, I wrote: ‘It will be apparent from reading these pages that I had much more information about the intimate life of Santos Dumont than I decided to publish. But I do praise myself for doing so, for I do not see the slightest convenience in revealing to the public and transmitting to posterity about any great man facts that of course (as Voltaire said) he would require discretion.’
Of course I didn't think so. I'm an indiscreet biographer. Many of my informants, however, close friends of Santos Dumont (Pedrinho Guimarães, for example, his alter ego) were alive, and I needed to cover them, to keep them out of turmoil, from press discussions. Now everything is dead.
What I mainly had to say about Santos Dumont and did not say was this: he remained a virgin for a lifetime. Like Infante D. Henrique. Like Father Antonio Vieira. Like Da Vinci, Carlyle, Ruskin and Amiel. It exhibited many lovers because it was fashionable at the time to display them. He sought to compromise or compromise them. But he did nothing: it was not really going at all. This I guarantee."
Homosexual?[edit]
Paul Hoffman, writer of the book Wings of Madness, wrote that Santos Dumont possessed "a feminine shyness without feminine charm." This book, however, was severely criticized by carioca researcher Rodrigo Moura Visoni in the article Páginas da Loucura (Pages of Madness).[2] Researcher Henrique Gomes de Paiva Lins de Barros of the Brazilian Center for Physical Research rejects the thesis that the Brazilian inventor was homosexual, but only a man concerned with appearance.[3]
According to Barros, "French refinement sounded like homosexual affectation to American journalists, who described it as effeminate. (...) Hoffman did not understand the customs and values of the time and saw everything with the distorted view that was then had in the United States."[4] In fact, Santos Dumont had a refined education and lived with the elite of French society. He was an intensely photographed man, so he dressed elegantly.
But recently, Santos Dumont was listed on the list of "100 gay vips from Brazil", formulated by anthropologist Luiz Mott, rekindling the discussion about the Brazilian aviator's sex life. Santos Dumont's family has repudiated the airman's allegations of homosexuality.[5]
Bisexual?[edit]
A supposed farewell letter from Santos Dumont has been carried by the press as evidence of bisexuality, which reads: "I loved men and women, I am male and female, in my heart and mind, I was not given the good or the bad to know how to divide such complementary categories".[6]
Doubts remain regarding the veracity of the letter, which would have been forged by Orlando Senna for the book Santos Dumont: ares nunca dantes navegados (Santos Dumont: Sky's Never Before Sailed), a fiction published in 1984 by Editora Brasiliense. Senna has always admitted that the letter was entirely invented by him, so much so that the original of the letter does not exist and the book falls into the category of "National Literature" rather than "Biography".[7]
Heterosexual?[edit]
Yolanda Penteado, in the autobiography Tudo em Cor de Rosa (Everything in pink), tells: "(...) I met Alberto Santos Dumont, a brother of my uncle Henrique. Seu Alberto, as we called him, came to dinner every day and kept saying that it was to watch the moon come out. In Flamengo, the full moon nights were really beautiful. He was a restless person. I thought it was funny that you gave me so much attention. And Aunt Amália said: 'Alberto, you're getting dizzy, dating this girl'. Mr. Alberto, in fact, made me court, brought me chocolates, flowers, took me for a walk. People who knew him best said that when he saw me he was electric".[4]
In 2009, a letter from Santos Dumont to his friend Pedro Guimarães, dated December 23, 1901, was published, in which the former tells of being in love with an American:
Anyway, the darling came here on the 19th. On the 21st I went to have tea at her house (I am truly brave) and yesterday she came to have tea at a friend's house where we meet again. Then I drove her and her dad in the car. She's very kind and beautiful, but as soon as I saw her family, I don't know why, I suspected they shouldn't be very rich, and only today did her friend explain it to me. Her father is the one who is very rich, but she is quarreling with her father and disinherited, not the other two brothers, who have the money !!! (...) But my heart is very much with her already… and I don't know what to do: if I stop dating or continue. It is a very critical position.
— Santos Dumont, Alberto Santos Dumont: novas revelações,[8], Alberto Santos Dumont: novas revelações, (2009), p. 245, by Cosme Degenar Drumond, publisher: Editora Cultura
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ "Revista FAPESP: 100 anos no ar" [FAPESP Magazine: 100 years in the air]. Archived from the original on October 8, 2018. Retrieved July 25, 2019. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Ideias em Destaque" [Featured Ideas] (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 25, 2019. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
- ↑ "Revista Época: Memórias da angústia" [Época Magazine: Memories of Anguish]. Archived from the original on October 8, 2017. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Fama de homossexual" [Fame of homosexual]. Archived from the original on August 12, 2007. Retrieved November 9, 2009. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Revista Isto É Gente: Eram eles gays?" [Isto É Gente Magazine: Were they gay?]. Archived from the original on July 19, 2019. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
- ↑ "O Santos Dumont que não decola" [The Santos Dumont that does not take off]. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved July 25, 2019. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Santos Dumont: Ares Nunca Dantes Navegados" [Santos Dumont: Skies Never Before Sailed]. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved November 9, 2009. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Editora Cultura: Alberto Santos Dumont: novas revelações" [Culture Publisher: Alberto Santos Dumont: New Revelations]. Archived from the original on August 29, 2009. Retrieved July 25, 2019. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help)
Bibliography[edit]
- DRUMOND, Cosme Degenar. Alberto Santos Dumont: novas revelações. São Paulo: Editora Cultura, 2009.
- FONSECA, Gondin da. Santos Dumont. Rio de Janeiro: Livraria São José, 1956.
- HOFFMAN, Paul. Asas da loucura. São Paulo: Editora Objetiva, 2003. ISBN 85-7302-592-1 Search this book on
.
- Hoffman, Paul (2003). Wings of Madness: Alberto Santos-Dumont and the Invention of Flight. Hyperion Books. ISBN 0-7868-8571-8. Search this book on
- Hoffman, Paul (2003). Wings of Madness: Alberto Santos-Dumont and the Invention of Flight. Hyperion Books. ISBN 0-7868-8571-8. Search this book on
- PENTEADO, Yolanda. Tudo em cor de rosa. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 1977.
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