2
Ninguém solta a mão de ninguém
Nobody lets go of nobody's hand
Student no: 11093579 ninasierig@gmail.com Supervisor: Martijn Dekker M.Dekker3@uva.nl
Second Reader: Polly Pallister-Wilkins P.e.pallister-wilkins@uva.nl
Conflict Resolution and Governance 24.849 words
3 28 June 2019
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Table of Contents
◊ Abstract 4
◊ Introduction 5
◊ Chapter 1: Brazil 8
◊ Chapter 2: São Paulo 11
◊ Chapter 3: In Theory 13 - Literature Review 13 - Theoretical Framework 17 ◊ Chapter 4: 10 Women 21 ◊ Chapter 5: Race 27 ◊ Chapter 6: Gender 36 ◊ Chapter 7: Sexuality 42 ◊ Chapter 8: Resistance 48
◊ Conclusion: Brazil in Crisis 51
◊ References 53
5
Abstract
This thesis will explore how do the dominant social norms in Brazilian society influence the lives and identities of LGBT women of colour in São Paulo, Brazil. In order to formulate a better understanding of how the norm is established, imposed, and embodied, the research will be built upon a framework comprised of the theories of Michel Foucault on discursive formation, Pierre Bourdieu on the habitus, Mary Douglas and her work on secular defilement, Judith Butler’s work on the right to appear, as well as on the work of Kimberlé Crenshaw on intersectionality. The
experiences of women in São Paulo are illustrated through in-depth interviews with ten individuals from diverse backgrounds, ages, social classes, levels of education and religions. The analysis of these interviews focuses on the concepts of race, gender and sexuality in relation to the norm. The analysis shows that the dominant norms have a detrimental influence on the lives and the identities of these women. The social norms define unattainable ideals that are imposed on them their entire lives, causing confusion and guilt about their own identities. When the women do not conform, they will be rejected by society, their existence rendered invisible and/or lead to extreme forms of violence used against them.
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Introduction
“Ser mulher negra, é resistir e sobreviver o tempo todo.”
“To be a black woman, is to resist and survive all the time.”
- Marielle Franco
Marielle Franco’s death sent a shock wave through the country. She was an important
politician, a brave advocate for human rights and female empowerment, while also raising awareness of the issues in the favelas (Neuenschwander and Giraldes 2018). Marielle Franco was planning on running for Deputy Governor in the 2018 elections but unfortunately was never able to. On March 14, 2018, she was murdered together with her driver, by having three bullets shot in her head. The bullets that killed her were traced back to a batch that had been sold to the Federal Police
(Neuenschwander and Giraldes 2018). Marielle’s identity as a young, bisexual, black, favelada and proud women became a symbol that united all these identities in society. It generated much
commotion in a large part of the country, but also an unexpected force of national and international solidarity and indignation. Several movements inside and outside of the country began to manifest strongly against injustices and marginalization in Brazilian society.
Because, being a woman, or being a person of colour, or being LGBT in Brazil means that the chances of losing your life are significantly higher. In 2018 alone 536 women were victims of physical violence every hour (FBSP 2018). Police violence disproportionally affects the black population, resulting in 61% of the deaths being of people of colour (Da Costa Silva et al. 2018; Smith 2018). Brazil is the most violent country in the world against the LGBT community and in 2017, an LGBT individual was murdered every 19 hours (Sanches, Contarato, and Azevedo 2018; Michels and Mott 2018).
The strong activism in response to her murder caught my attention. Although I was born and raised in Holland, I always felt at home in Brazil due to our annual visits to my mother's family, who was born in São Paulo. My bilingual and bicultural upbringing was fundamental in making me feel familiar with the Brazilian language and culture. Yet, following Marielle Franco’s death, I became interested in aspects that were not as evident to me at first, such as the strong oppression and
7 Brazil, and it was a new perspective on the country that had always been so welcoming towards me. This led me to strive for a better understanding of what it means to be a black LGBT woman in Brazil.
This thesis will explore how do the dominant social norms in Brazilian society influence the lives and identities of LGBT women of colour in São Paulo, Brazil. The focus will be on three aspects of their identity, their race, gender, and sexuality as I believe these are very significant and shaping in their identity. In order to form a possible answer to this question, I chose to conduct ten in-depth interviews with ten LGBT women of colour from diverse backgrounds, ages, social classes, levels of education and religions.
First, I will give a short historical context of Brazil. Within this historical context, the focus will be on Brazil’s history of slavery, as this period left an extremely significant impression on the future of the country. I believe it is important to know the country’s history in order to understand what the current norms are, what they mean, and how deeply ingrained they are in the Brazilian culture. To say that Brazil’s history has been restless is an understatement. It is also important to have an idea of the Brazilian population, which is known for its diversity and racial blend, as it helps explain the significance of the norms and how the norms came to be what they are today. In the second chapter, I give a short historical context on the city of São Paulo for the same reasons mentioned above. Brazil is incredibly vast, and there are large differences within the country regarding development, population and wealth and which could lead to differences in the dominant discourse. Having an idea of the city will allow the reader to contextualise the stories told by the women in a better way.
In chapter three I will discuss the literature of the past four years to create a current
understanding of the social norms in Brazil’s society and the current state of affairs in Brazil when it comes to the concepts of race, gender and sexuality. In order to formulate a better understanding of how the norm is established, imposed, and embodied, the research will be built upon a framework comprised of the theories of Michel Foucault on discursive formation, Pierre Bourdieu on the habitus, Mary Douglas and her work on secular defilement, Judith Butler’s work on the right to appear, as well as on the work of Kimberlé Crenshaw on intersectionality.
In the fourth chapter, I will describe my research methods and introduce the interviewees: the 10 strong women that have shared their very personal and emotional experiences with me. Their stories will be discussed over the following chapters five, six and seven. It might seem
counterintuitive to separate these issues when building on the concept of intersectionality. When conducting the analysis, I looked at the three together, how they interact and interplay because they influence and shape each other. Yet, I found that in my interviews, there were relatively clear
8 demarcations of each concept. Therefore, I chose to follow the narrative from the interviews in the structure of my thesis. The aspect of intersectionality will become clear as the concepts of the different chapters are related to each other within the analysis.
Chapter five we be on race, which is a leading subjects in discourse in Brazil. Racism is still present in Brazilian society and the country’s history plays a large role in the current notions that are held. The norms on race are clearly defined by the interviewees and impact their lives in many different ways. Both personal, and in their interaction with others.
Chapter six will focus on gender, explaining the norms relating to gender roles in Brazilian society and how they led to the notions that these women had of what a woman is supposed to be. It also discusses how these notions changed as the women learned more about themselves.
Chapter seven concludes the analysis with the concept of sexuality. The norms on sexuality are closely related to those of gender and have an equally, if not more, confusing effect.
In chapter 8, I want to emphasise that these women are not only victims, but very active and strong actors that fight every day to make a change in their society. One might get lost in the stories of suffering, but should not forget the stories of resistance too.
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Chapter 1
Brazil
Brazil is the largest country of South-America and the fifth in the world, with a population of about 208,5 million people (Lilia Moritz Schwarcz and Starling 2018). Thinking about Brazil, the image that many people have is one of a tropical paradise, with white beaches, a deep blue ocean and palm trees slowly waving in a hot breeze. The people on that beach are often beautifully tan, sipping cocktails and scantily dressed. Another popular image that goes alongside the first one, depicts the favela’s of Rio de Janeiro, covering the mountainsides around the city, where future professional football players are running in the streets and drug-related violence is a daily occurrence.
Both of these images are truthful in a way and show how Brazil can and is often described through contradictions. Yet, while they are not inaccurate, they do not represent the entirety of what Brazil is as a country. Through my own experiences, I have always visualised it as a very joyful country, where people like to celebrate and enjoy life, even when they do not necessarily have the means to do so in a lavish way. As I saw it, it was often the opposite; people did not need much to have fun. The bars on the street would have plastic chairs, cheap beer and music, and they would always be full of laughter and dancing. This perspective is close to the first image many people have. The second one of the favela’s is far more profound and complicated than I first thought. It depicts one of the country’s most infamous contradictions; the harsh divide between the rich and the poor in Brazilian society. The issues regarding poverty are not purely economic, yet are inherently connected to highly complicated matters as race, religion, gender, education, violence, and more, which are all deeply rooted in the country’s turbulent history.
Brazil’s modern history starts in 1500 when the country was invaded by European colonizers and eventually claimed by the Portuguese (Lilia Moritz Schwarcz and Starling 2018). It must have been an extraordinary sight, as the country is rich in large mountain ranges, rivers, amazing
waterfalls and, at the time, was mostly covered by rainforests with thousands of different plants and animal species. In the present day, the only part of the forest that remains lies in the northern part of the country, where the Amazon rainforest encompasses the majority of the land. Still being one of the largest rainforests in the world, it is, unfortunately, being threatened by an alarmingly high rate of deforestation (SOURCE). The arrival of the Europeans led toan unceasing war between them and the native communities of Brazil, which are estimated to have been 5 million people at the time (Miki 2018). In the year of Brazil’s independence, 1822, that number had decreased to 800.000 free
10 individuals due to the conflicts and numerous epidemics of diseases brought over by the Europeans (Miki 2018; Schwartz 2018). The colonizers enslaved many of the natives, but gradually transitioned to African slavery as the natives formed a strong opposition and were difficult to maintain under control, knowing the land and forests (Miki 2018; Schwartz 2018). The Portuguese needed people to work on the many plantations they had established, as sugar became their most important export product (Lilia Moritz Schwarcz and Starling 2018). With the first slave ships arriving in 1550, and the last ones still (illegally) transporting slaves around 1860, a total number of 4,8 million Africans is estimated to have been brought into Brazil. These individuals were brought in one of the
approximately 15 thousand journeys made by the slave ships from Africa’s East Coast to Brazil (Alencastro 2018, 57). The 4,8 million individuals constitute to 46% of the total number of Africans who were imported in the transatlantic slave trade in the total of 36 million journeys made by the slave ships, between the African continent and the America’s. (Alencastro 2018; Lilia M. Schwarcz and Gomes 2018). It is estimated that of the forcefully imported slave population, two-thirds were male and around three-fourths were adults (Klein 2018; Luna and Klein 2018). On the ships, many lived in terror, not only because of the horrid conditions but also because many believed the white men were cannibals (Rodrigues 2018). Others could probably not have imagined the horrific
treatment that was awaiting them. Pain and violence was part of their everyday life, not only because of the intense labour but also because “the punishments inflicted on the slaves were the prerogative of the masters, practically an obligation, recognized and corroborated by customs and laws”
(Grinberg 2018, 145). Consequently, the average age of a slave was approximately 23 years old (SOURCE). Violence was used to maintain control; therefore, the punishments were often public and humiliating in order to reaffirm the power of the master over his subordinates (Grinberg 2018). An important reason is the size of the slave population in comparison to the number of colonizers, which was unbalanced. Between 1550 and 1850, about 750.000 Portuguese arrived in Brazil, which leads to the calculation that for every 100 that disembarked, 86 of them were slaves, and 14 Portuguese colonizers and immigrants (Alencastro 2018).
In 1822, Brazil claimed independence from Portugal after many disputes between those ruling Brazil and the regents of Portugal (Lilia Moritz Schwarcz and Starling 2018). Portugal demanded their king, who lived in Brazil, to return to Portugal and his son, Dom Pedro I, stayed in Brazil, eventually becoming the first emperor of an independent Brazil (Lilia Moritz Schwarcz and Starling 2018). At this time, the discourse on abolitionism had gained significant support amongst the Portuguese. The slaves themselves had organised revolts all during the 16th, 17th and 18th century,
which became larger and more violent over time. After the national and international pressure became overbearing, Brazil was the last Western country to formally abolish slavery in 1888.
11 In 1889, a military coup ended the monarchy in Brazil and the country entered “ the era of the Republic” (Lilia Moritz Schwarcz and Starling 2018, 355). The leader of this coup, general Marshal Deodoro, would become the country’s first president (Lilia Moritz Schwarcz and Starling 2018). Not for long, however, as the first coup was quickly followed by several other attempts and a bloody civil war, which resulted in the establishment of the first civilian government in 1894 (Lilia Moritz
Schwarcz and Starling 2018). This led to a period of relative stability, although one could not call the system a full democracy as the military maintained their political power and influence, and “fraud occurred in every phase of the electoral process – from the selection of the voters to the recognition of the winners.” (Lilia Moritz Schwarcz and Starling 2018, 359–60). In the time of the Republic, the focus of the government was to modernize and develop the country, and due to the abolition of slavery, the government made strong propaganda for immigrants to come to Brazil, especially from Europe. To Brazil, Europe was a symbol of the height of modernity and an example to follow. Around 79.000 immigrants arrived in Brazil between 1877 and 1930, coming from all over Western and Eastern Europe (Lilia Moritz Schwarcz and Starling 2018). Later, there was also a large wave of Japanese immigrants adding to this number (Lilia Moritz Schwarcz and Starling 2018). The
population of Brazil grew considerably and large cities, such as Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Belo Horizonte developed rapidly. However, instability and conflict in the country lead to a political crisis in which the military takes over government in 1930, after which politician Getúlio Vargas rules as a dictator. His control ends after his suicide in 1954, but after a brief period of interim governments, the power is taken by the military in yet another coup in 1964. What follows is a military dictatorship that lasts until 1985 when Brazil finally returns to a democratic political system.
This leads me to more recent years. After four presidents, of which the first was impeached based on corruption allegations and two were re-elected for a second term, Brazil’s first female president, Dilma Rousseff, was elected in 2010. Again, accused of corruption she was impeached during her second term. In 2018, far-right president Jair Bolsonaro won the elections and is currently the president of Brazil.
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Chapter 2
São Paulo
São Paulo is a great city, in many different ways. I consider the city to be my second home. It is the capital of the state of São Paulo, which lies in the Southeast of Brazil. It is the wealthiest state of the country and “one of the world’s most advanced agricultural, industrial and urbanized regions” (Luna and Klein 2003, 1). To me, São Paulo has always been a world in itself. The largest city I have lived in is Amsterdam, which has a ‘mere’ 800.000 inhabitants and you could cross in an hour, by bike. In the city of São Paulo, there are a little over 12.1 million people, making it the most populous city in Brazil and one of the most populous cities in the world (IBGE 2019). Taking the area around the city into account, the Greater São Paulo Area, the city holds over 30 million residents (IBGE 2019). Travelling an hour by car will probably not even get you two neighbourhoods over, as the city and metropolitan area expand over 8000 km2, which is about 40 times as large as Amsterdam (Luna and Klein 2018).
The city started with the establishment of the Colégio de São Paulo in 1554, a small church named after a saint and that was built by Jesuits that came with the European colonizers (Lilia Moritz Schwarcz and Starling 2018). While their plan to convert the natives in this area was not successful, around the church formed a small town (Lilia Moritz Schwarcz and Starling 2018). Until the end of the 17th century, São Paulo was a small, rural village that was hard to access due to its location
relatively far from the coast (Lilia Moritz Schwarcz and Starling 2018). Then, around 1700, the discovery of gold in the nearby state of Minas Gerais increased the importance of the town São Paulo as more people would move to the area (Lilia Moritz Schwarcz and Starling 2018). In 1822, the year of Brazil’s independence claim, it was still a small town with 6920 inhabitants (Lilia Moritz
Schwarcz and Starling 2018). Yet, in the 1870s, São Paulo started to develop into the city that it is today (Lilia Moritz Schwarcz and Starling 2018; Luna and Klein 2018). As has been mentioned in Chapter 1, in 1870 Brazil was a Republic with a relatively democratic government, whose objective it was to make Brazil into a modern country equivalent to the countries in Europe. In the following passage, it is as if one can see the city being constructed in front of their eyes:
“From the 1870s onward the city of São Paulo underwent a socioeconomic, urbanizing, physical and demographic transformation. Due to the prosperity of the coffee plantations and the gradual abolition of slavery, it became an important commercial and financial centre: the ‘coffee
13 metropolis’. Public electric lighting was installed, a public tram system was built, and the famous Butantã Institute, which produces serums from snake poison, was founded. New avenues were constructed, old avenues extended, squares and public gardens refurbished and opened. São Paulo’s ‘high society’ adopted new habits: shopping at fashionable stores, going to horse races, and spending the evenings at balls or at the theatre.” (Lilia Moritz Schwarcz and Starling 2018, 366).
In about 150 years, São Paulo expanded from a small rural town into the metropolitan city that it is today. However, this modernizing also had a negative side, as modest houses and slums were destroyed in order to expand the city (Lilia Moritz Schwarcz and Starling 2018). Because of its rich and successful coffee industry, the city became the political and economic centre of the region and at the same time, the waves of immigrants transformed the already mixed population of blacks, whites and indigenous people into a more diverse blend of background and colours. The number of inhabitants in the state grew from around half a million people around 1850 to over 8 million a century later (Luna and Klein 2018). Around 1870, the state of São Paulo was also one of Brazil’s states with the highest number of slaves (Luna and Klein 2018). However, more than half of the coloured population was free, which was a relatively high percentage at the time compared to other states in the country (Luna and Klein 2018). At that time, the city of São Paulo contained around 48.000 people, of whom 76 percent were white (Luna and Klein 2018).
The city continued to grow, as in the 1980s Brazil’s government moved all financial operations to the city of São Paulo, making it the “banking centre of the nation” (Luna and Klein 2018). At the end of the 20th century, industrial and technological developments turned the state into
“world’s most highly competitive international agricultures”, becoming a large and important exporter in sugar, oranges and soybeans as well on the world market (Luna and Klein 2018). It is a fast-paced, financial city, which also became a cultural centre, offering many museums, theatres, festivals and the location for many important political events.
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Chapter 3
In Theory
Literature ReviewThe history of São Paulo and, more generally, the history of Brazil have laid the foundation for the way Brazilian society is organised in the present day. Mirroring the larger structure of this thesis, I will define and elaborate on the concepts of race, gender and sexuality and their meaning, in order to have a more complete image of the society in which the interviewees live and be able to understand and place their stories into context.
The country’s extensive use of violence throughout its history has left a mark and is still visible in many different parts of its society. In Brazil’s relatively short history, these use of violence has naturalized within the Brazilian culture and the societal norms. The 400 years of institutionalised slavery have cast a long shadow over the country (Lilia Moritz Schwarcz and Starling 2018).
Racism, the belief that one race is superior to others, is still deeply integrated into Brazilian society. It arises from the concept of “race”, which implies that humans can be distinguished by their
physical characteristics into different groups (Fry 2009). “Race” is a social construction, as scientifically speaking we are all part of the same species, the Homo Sapiens, and there are no
further taxonomic classifications (Fry 2009). Racial differentiation is used to determine the humanity of people, and so their worth and the value of their peoples’ lives. By dehumanizing certain groups, others define themselves as better. Yet, why did slavery have such an impact in Brazil, seeing as the possibility to own and trade people as property is not unique to the country? Numerous, if not all civilizations, institutionalised some form of slavery (da Costa e Silva 2018). What sets the Americas apart from these other societies, is that there was a significant difference in appearance between those who were free and those who were owned as slaves, namely the colour of their skin (da Costa e Silva 2018). While people in European civilizations and various African civilizations held slaves, it was often a form of punishment through the judicial system and both coloured as white-skinned individuals could suffer this conviction. Brazil, however, received the highest number of Africans, taken from their countries against their will and brought over to work as slaves all over the entire country (Lilia M. Schwarcz and Gomes 2018). Because of the constant union of status and
appearance, the concept of “slave” became synonymous to a negro, a black person (da Costa e Silva 2018, 14). The notions that people had of slaves, such as them being inferior, of them being stupid, deceitful, indolent, were now used to describe those who had dark skin. It was said that the black
15 population did not have a soul and were less human or not human at all in in the eyes of their masters (SOURCE).
Race and social class have become intertwined in a way that they define each other, due to the strong stereotypes and segregation in Brazil (Lilia Moritz Schwarcz and Starling 2018). Being a person of colour is still synonymous with being a person from a lower social-economic class, and the Afro-Brazilian descendants still suffer greatly from these forms of prejudice (da Costa e Silva 2018). In some cases, they are still perceived as being inferior to people with white skin colour. The
discrimination does not allow them to enjoy the same rights as their white peers, such as not having access to university courses, not being able to participate in the job market (da Costa e Silva 2018). For women of colour, there is the added layer of gender and their respective gender roles. In Brazil, there is a strong, binary understanding of gender. One is either male or female, and both have very distinct roles and responsibilities. Brazil also has a strong machismo culture, which is
“characterized by male hyper-aggression and dominance, particularly in the context of heterosexual intimate relationships.” (Evans et al. 2018, 5). To be able to understand the relation between men and women in Brazil and their respective roles in society, it would be beneficial to provide a more
general overview of the discourse on sex, gender and sexuality. In many cases people use these words interchangeably, creating confusion or misconceptions about their meaning (Levitt and Ippolito 2014, 1728). Hence, I will quickly define the terminology used in this context. First, the terms “sexuality” or “sexual orientation” are often used in the same context as sex and gender and it is often suggested that they are interconnected. However, one’s sexuality refers to whom that person is attracted to, which is completely unrelated to a person’s own identification (Fausto-Sterling 2000, 9; Kottak 2011, 229). One’s biological sex is often determined at birth or already before; based on a person’s physical characteristics, it will be defined whether they are male or female. (Fausto-Sterling 2000, 3,30; Levitt and Ippolito 2014, 1728). What follows from this proclamation, is the person’s
gender and corresponding gender roles, where gender refers to the previously determined category
the person belongs to, male or female, and the roles encompass the norms in society associated with that gender. These norms define what the person should like and dislike, what their appearance should be, and how they should act (Fausto-Sterling 2000, 3; Kottak 2011, 213). These strong definitions often lead to gender stereotypes, or oversimplified notions on the characteristics of men and women (Kottak 2011, 213). An example from Brazilian society would be that women are … than men, while men are more ... It is important to understand that gender is culturally constructed (Butler 1993). This becomes evident when analysing the gender roles in different cultures, as the norms differ greatly when comparing them. There are many people that do not identify with the sex and gender role they have been assigned to, and many believe that there are more categories than the
16 binary ones of male and female. What a person identifies as is seen as their gender identity,
irrespective of their physical characteristics.
These divergent gender identities are defined in various ways and given a place within the sex and gender discourse with numerous terms. People who do not identify with the norms often consider themselves part of the LGBT community, which stand for Lesbian, Gay, Bi, and Trans. As new terms continue to be created in the expanding spectrum of gender identities, the acronym grows as well. Currently, the terms Questioning or Queer and Intersex are regularly added, extending it to the LGBTQI+ community. The plus symbol at the end includes all those identities that are not specifically named. In Brazil, the first movement, the Movimento Homossexual Brasileiro or
Brazilian Homosexual Movement, was set up in 1970 and focused mainly on homosexual males with little space for lesbian women (Barboza and Soares 2018). Lesbian movements gained more
recognition in the 1990s, alongside the feminist movements and in 1995 the Brazilian Association of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transvestites, Transgenders and Intersex (ABLGT) was founded
(Barboza and Soares 2018). The HIV and Aids epidemic in the 90s, while incredibly tragic, gave the LGBT community more visibility and enabled the movements to successfully demand political recognition (Barboza and Soares 2018). In 1996 the homosexual population was included in the National Plan for Human Rights and in 2004 the government developed a program that would tackle homophobia (Barboza and Soares 2018). Same-sex marriage was legalised in 2013 and, most
recently, in 2019, homophobia and transphobia have been criminalized by Brazil’s Supreme Court (Perrone 2019). However, Brazils strong heteronormative culture, meaning that heterosexuality is seen as the norm, seems to have increased since the election of current president Jair Bolsonaro. His government is threatening the advancements, as it has removed the LGBT community from its human rights plan and taken a strong stance against the LGBT community (Faiola and Lopes 2019). Another trend threatening the LGBT community is that Brazil is growing more conservative (Faiola and Lopes 2019). Religion plays a very important role in society and currently, as a third of Brazil is evangelical, coming from 15% in 2000 (Faiola and Lopes 2019). “This change has been reflected in Brazil’s increasingly powerful evangelical caucus, which now claims 1 in 6 members in Brazil’s lower house, making it the most conservative National Congress since Brazil’s return to democracy in 1984.” (Faiola and Lopes 2019). These religious communities form a large pushback to the rights of the LGBT community: “some conservative politicians in state and city governments are now pushing for a ban on any discussion of gender diversity and sexual orientation in the classroom.” (Faiola and Lopes 2019).
The strong heteronormative character of Brazil’s society also becomes apparent from the reports on violence against the LGBT community in Brazil. Brazil is the most violent place against people
17 from the LGBT community in the world (Michels and Mott 2018). Moreover, the violence against the LGBT community tends to be more gruesome than crimes committed against others, as often victims are mangled and mutilated (Michels and Mott 2018). In 2017, every 19 hours an LGBT individual was murdered (Sanches, Contarato, and Azevedo 2018). When a person is transgender or transsexual, the chances of being murdered are 17 times higher than being a homosexual or a lesbian (Michels and Mott 2018). According to the data from Disque 100, a governmental organisation to report human right violations, there were a total of 348 cases were reported of psychological violence against LGBT people in 2018 (Sanches, Contarato, and Azevedo 2018). In addition, there were 472 cases of discrimination, 217 of physical violence, 89 of institutional violence, 28 of negligence, 14 of financial abuse, and 15 of sexual violence (Sanches, Contarato, and Azevedo 2018). The state of São Paulo had the highest number of reports in 2017, with a total of 226, in which the state’s high
population count is seen as an important factor (Sanches, Contarato, and Azevedo 2018). In 2018 the state also had the highest amount of murder and suicide victims, 58 in total which was 12 more than the state after it (Michels and Mott 2018). That year, death by suicide made up 23,8 percent of the total amount of 420 deaths in the country, the other 76,2 percent was assassinated (Michels and Mott 2018). The numbers on violence against LGBT have steadily increased since 2000, which counted 130 deaths (Michels and Mott 2018). There could be other factors influencing this number, as it could be that people now report more of the violence than before. When it comes to racial
differentiation, of the 420 that have died, 58,4% was white, 29,3 percent pardo, meaning mixed race, and 12,3% black (Michels and Mott 2018).
For women, according to the World Health Organisation, the rate for femicide in Brazil is 4,8 for every 100.000 women (Rossi 2018). “Femicide” is defined as “the killing of females by males because they are females.” (Russel 2012), and these numbers place Brazil in fifth place on the list of highest femicide rates, amongst 84 other countries (Rossi 2018). The Brazilian Forum for Brazilian Security shows that in 2018, 3.6% of the women in the country was a victim of severe beatings and/or attempted strangulation (FBSP 2018, 13). That percentage translates to 1.6 million women, equating to one woman being beaten or strangled every 3 minutes (FBSP 2018). As was mentioned in the introduction, in 2018, 536 women were victims of physical violence every hour (FBSP 2018). And these numbers are expected to be much higher in reality, as 27,4% of women state to have been a victim of some form of violence in 2019, against 59,1% of the population that claims to have seen these occurrences of violence happen in their neighbourhood or community (FBSP 2018, 11).
Within these numbers, the percentage of women of colour that have suffered violence is higher than that of white women. The study distinguished between dark-skinned women, of which 28,4% reported to have experienced violence in the past 12 months, brown-skinned women, of
18 whom 27,5% stated to have been a victim and white women, of whom 24,7% reported violence (FBSP 2018, 15). A factor that influences these number is that women of colour are
disproportionally affected by police violence: “Black women are also shot, tortured, and killed by the police in addition to facing sexual assault and terror due to both physical threats and the lingering, deadly effects of police terror.” (Smith 2018, 370). Of the prison population in Brazil, which is the fourth largest in the world, 67% of the women are of colour (Borges 2018). In these prisons, these women are subjected to horrific conditions: “Still today, we hear reports of “corrective rape”, which is the idea that through punishment and suffering they may achieve some sort of “salvation”.” (Borges 2018).
All this data leads me to believe that the life of LGBT women of colour is very precarious. Especially when taking into account that most of the statistics are based on reports, not including the violence that has not been reported.
Theoretical Framework
As the numbers show, the meaning and strong imposition of the social norms in Brazil have destructive consequences for a large part of the population that does not adhere to or fit into these norms. How have these norms been established and in what way could they lead to the
consequences discussed above? Norms arise from the dominant discourses in society (Butler 1993). Thus, in order to understand how the norm in Brazil is established, I will start by discussing how discourse is formed. Michel Foucault’s leading theories on discursive formation could provide insights into the materialization of the social norms in Brazil. Gillian Rose provides a structured discussion of his concepts, therefore, for my explanation, I will be building on her understanding of his writing (2016). According to Foucault, discourse is created when phenomena or objects are frequently connected to specific concepts or environments (Rose 2016). “It is powerful, says Foucault, because it is productive” (Rose 2016, 189). He explains that, discourse is what produces human subjects and how humans perceive, interpret and understand themselves and the world around them (Rose 2016). It forms the ways in which people think and act (Rose 2016). Discourse is
everywhere, and in society, there are numerous different discourses existing alongside and overlapping each other (Rose 2016). Yet, certain discourses will dominate over others. Their dominance is produced by social institutions that hold powerful positions in society (Rose 2016). Foucault argues that these institutions gain their power through claims and assumptions of having true knowledge, thus by stating their knowledge as being the truth (Rose 2016). Whether their knowledge is true, however, is not necessarily so. Important is that enough people will perceive it as
19 being true. As long as enough people perceive it as the truth, they will enact it as the truth, meaning that it will be a part of how they live their lives. This way, the dominance of the discourse will be justified.
Judith Butler argues that by defining the norm, it will inevitably define what does not
constitute as the norm (Butler 1993). The latter will go on to be a perpetual contestation of the norm, challenging its claim to be the truth as it confirms the existence of an alternative reality (Butler 1993). Butler argues that because of this, the norm will never fully materialize in society. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly reiterate it (Butler 1993). One way this reiteration takes place is in the human process of forming an identity. Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of the habitus and Mary Douglas’ work on “Purity and Danger” could help understand this process (Bourdieu 1977; Douglas 1996). Both provide a theoretical framework to conceptualize the way in which this process takes place.
According to Bourdieu, throughout their lives, human beings will build up a system of dispositions in their subconscious which he calls the habitus. This system allows them to make sense of the world around them, providing a structure to structuralise all they sense and perceive. The habitus constructs itself based on reoccurrence and is produced by the environment in which a person grows up (Bourdieu 1977). It continues to develop and expand itself constantly according to the new situations one finds themselves in (Bourdieu 1977). When people grow up in the same environment in similar circumstances, it could result in them having a similar habitus (Bourdieu 1977). Besides understanding, the habitus also helps humans to form an appropriate response to their circumstances (Bourdieu 1977). It defines the best reaction by calculating, so to speak, the “objective potentialities” and simulating them in relation to all the past conditions (Bourdieu 1977, 76). The habitus will, therefore, determine what a person deems possible or impossible and it will also define a person’s interests and preferences (Bourdieu 1977).
Mary Douglas’ presents a similar theory (1996). She argues that all of the perceptions of an individual are organised into patterns, which are constructed by the individual themselves.
Perceiving, in this context, is not an activity that is executed passively. She explains how in
perceiving, humans are already selecting which stimuli to respond to according to their interests: “In a chaos of shifting impressions, each of us constructs a stable world in which objects have
recognizable shapes, are located in depth, and have permanence.” (Douglas 1996, 45). Our interests, she continues, are also formed according to this “pattern-making tendency” (Douglas 1996, 45). In line with Bourdieu’s habitus, the patterns are not static but continue to adjust over time, constantly building themselves up (Douglas 1996). New impressions, or cues, are placed into the pattern, continuing its construction.
20 Both Douglas’ patterns and Bourdieu’s habitus confirm the significance of social norms on people’s identity. People’s individual identities are constructed by their environment and in turn, their environment is shaped by the dominating norms in society. Yet, what happens when humans encounter an object or situation that does not fit the norm? This is where Douglas provides a more detailed explanation in comparison to Bourdieu. According to Douglas, cues that are familiar or deemed acceptable will easily be placed into the pattern. Some cues, however, will be confusing or even be contradicting. Douglas explains how ambiguous cues will be treated and adjusted
accordingly to fit into the pattern (1996). Conflicting cues will often be rejected or ignored, or the pattern will be modified in order for the conflicting cue to be accepted (Douglas 1996). Over time, however, it becomes harder for the pattern to adjust. While assessing and attributing meaning to the world, people build in “conservative bias” as they become more comfortable and confident in their assumptions (Douglas 1996, 46). When a person is presented with a cue that challenges the pattern, it will either be distorted or completely ignored as to not disrupt the patterns that are in place (Douglas 1996). Bourdieu calls this process the hysteresis effect, describing how people will feel
uncomfortable or out of place when they are in certain situations that they are not familiar with (1977). In these cases, people will often rely on the dispositions already acquired by the habitus while the habitus takes time to adapt (Bourdieu 1977). Although certain assumptions will be harder to change, both Bourdieu and Douglas argue that it is not impossible for people to confront the things they do not understand and change their dispositions (Bourdieu 1977; Douglas 1996).
To relate the concepts by Bourdieu and Douglas to Butler, as the norms are continuously
reiterated by individuals as they embody and subsequently enact them (Bourdieu 1977). Also, in the process of defining who they are, people must define what they are not. To identify with the norm, people reject all that is not the norm (Butler 1993).
While Bourdieu and Douglas create a comprehensive understanding of the identification process, it is important to stress its complexity. In analysing one’s identity or the collective identity of a particular group in society, there are multiple facets to take into account. This brings me to the concept of intersectionality. The term was introduced and developed by Kimberlé Crenshaw, and she explains it as “an analytic sensibility, a way of thinking about identity and its relationship to power.” (Crenshaw 2015, 1). The concept of intersectionality emphasises the importance to analyse the different dimensions of identity in relation to each other instead of as separate issues (Crenshaw 1991; Mccall 2005). The problem that often arises in identity politics is that these individual identities are often generalised and intragroup differences will be ignored (Crenshaw 1991). In reality, the dimensions are complex layers that are not experienced by people as distinct, separate aspects of themselves in their lives (Crenshaw 1991). Neither are the various layers of oppression
21 they face easily distinguishable as one particular type or experienced as such. The term was
originally created in support of black women, who are often rendered invisible within certain
movements (Crenshaw 2015). An example would be how within feminist movements the emphasis is often placed upon securing the rights of those women who were part of the dominant group in
society or those who adhere to the norm of what it means to be a woman. The women that are not part of these communities, such as women of colour or LGBT individuals, will be “forgotten” in the feminist discussion (Crenshaw 1991).
Butler addresses the issue of representation. “The question of recognition is an important one,” Butler states, “for if we say that we believe all human subjects deserve equal recognition, we presume that all human subjects are equally recognizable.”(2015, 35). In reality, she argues, the space in which people are recognizable is limited and restricted, allowing only a certain group to enter and appear as recognizable subjects. She explains how it is the norm that regulates this space: “Indeed, the compulsory demand to appear in one way rather than another functions as a
precondition of appearing at all. And this means that embodying the norm or norms by which one gains recognizable status is a way of ratifying and reproducing certain norms of recognition over others, and so constraining the field of the recognizable.” (Butler 2015, 35). However, while society attempts to render certain identities invisible by not allowing them to be recognized, the physical body cannot be rendered invisible (Butler 2015). By existing, by taking up public space, their bodies are making the statement that they are not invisible.
22
Chapter 4
10 Women
The idea for this research project came from a personal interest to broaden my perspective of Brazil. As a white, heterosexual, and essentially foreign woman (since I never lived in Brazil) I believed my experiences were very specific, and I wanted to gain a broader view of the other possible realities of people in the same city, walking the same streets as me. It Marielle Franco’s death that led me to the group of LGBT women of colour, as her murder was such a marking event for me. Also, because the subsequent reaction of the social movements against the injustice in Brazilian society made a deep impact on me. In addition, I was interested in people who were the opposite of me in many ways. The only aspect we had in common was our gender, which I decided on because I still wanted to feel a connection or some degree of relatability to the people I talked to.
The question that I initially wanted to answer was: How do LGBT women of colour gain and express political agency in São Paulo, Brazil? Yet, after I had done my first couple of interview, I realized that this question only touched upon a small aspect of these women’s lives and did not encompass all the incredible stories these women were sharing with me. The violence these women encounter in their daily lives was a lot more intense than I had anticipated. To only analyse their political agency felt narrow and limited, as these women are fighting for their existence to be recognized and dealing with exceedingly more complex issues than their political agency. I decided to, therefore, change my focus to their place in society, on the interplay between these women and Brazilian society, which led me to ask the question: How do the dominant social norms in Brazilian society influence the lives and identities of LGBT women of colour in São Paulo, Brazil?
To answer this question I was interested in the personal stories of these women, which is why I chose to adopt a qualitative research method and collect the data through interviews. The interviews would preferably be individual and also face-to-face as to include non-verbal cues as well. Having other people present at the interview could influence the answers the participants would give me or shape their stories. However, since the topics I was interested in could be difficult to talk about, I did tell the interviewees that they could bring someone if that made them more comfortable. Important is that all the interviews were conducted in Portuguese since most people in Brazil do not speak
English and the interviewees would be able to express themselves better in their mother tongue. I also made the choice of adopting an unstructured, narrative style of interviewing. The reason is that the subject matter I was questioning the women about was very personal and I believed they would be more comfortable sharing their stories in a conversation. Another reason is that I wanted to let the
23 interviewees free in their interpretations of the concepts I asked them about, meaning that I did not want to limit them by defining these for them. I would try to explain my research in as little words as possible, saying that I wanted to know more about their experiences as a woman, person of colour and LGBT. As I am not a person of colour nor LGBT, it was interesting for me to see where the interviewees would take me when discussing these topics since there are many areas and matters I would not connect these to. Usually, the women would already start talking about their lives after I explained my interview. The questions I would ask would be about their identification processes, how they discovered certain parts of their identity, how it made them feel, how their environment responded to changes. When they would talk about racism, sexism or homophobia in general, I would ask them how it had affected their personal lives or their day-to-day. Often I would ask them to elaborate on a certain aspect that I deemed interesting, or ask them about their perspective on something that I had heard in other interviews. An example is the significance of their hair, as will be explained in Chapter 5. As it appeared to be a recurrent aspect, I would ask the women that did not bring it up themselves if it had the same significance to them which it usually did. A question that I asked every participant if it had not already been brought up, is how they experienced the elections of 2018. President Jair Bolsonaro and many in his government have been openly and blatantly homophobic, sexist and racist, among other things, which in my experience has inspired a similar reaction from society. When I thought the interviewee was going too far off topic, I would bring them back by asking them about something specific they had told me before, for example.
The number of interviews I aimed at was between 10 to 15, as I believed that this number would give me a relatively wide view into the lives of LGBT women of colour, while still allowing me to maintain the level of individuality and depth of each interview in my analysis. I interviewed 11 women who all lived in São Paulo at the time of my research. The women are of different ages, backgrounds, and social classes. I did consciously try to include women from different ages as I thought it might give me a sense of the societal differences over time, but the other differences, such as religion or social class, were coincidental. Having three factors already, I expected it to be
challenging enough to find participants. I wanted to include trans women as well, but it turned out that this specific group was more difficult to approach, as the ones I met were more apprehensive and not willing to share as much with a ‘foreign, white woman’. Some other women did not want to talk to me for the same reasons, feeling as if I was treating them as research subjects, for my own gain, and then leaving again to Europe.
What follows is a short introduction of the women I interviewed (written in the past tense as it relates to the time I interviewed them). To protect their privacy, their names have been replaced by
24 pseudonyms. However, two interviewees wanted to keep their own name as a statement of pride for their identity.
◊ Malu was the first woman I interviewed. She was 52 years old at the time we met, and I was impressed by her long militancy and political involvement. She grew up in an interracial family in the city.
◊ I met Valentina, at the mental health facility she works at as a social worker. She grew up Catholic in the north of Brazil came to São Paulo to study, where she now lives in the periphery of the city. She was 42 at the time of our interview
◊ Luiza was raised in São Paulo in a family of mostly women. She is very active in the LGBT and feminist movements and is part of the Candomblé community.
◊ Heloísa, 32, is also part of the Candomblé community. She was raised in the city in a middle-class, conservative family.
◊ Dandara had only recently moved to São Paulo when I met her, about 1,5 years ago. She grew up in a smaller town in the state in an evangelical community. When we met, she was 22, currently a resident in social healthcare.
◊ Angela was 41 and grew up in the north of Brazil. Her family had always been very leftist and her parents were militants in the black power movements. At the time of the interview, she has lived in São Paulo for 7 years.
◊ Cora was an art history student of 24 years old, who at the time of the interview was on exchange in Ireland. Before, she grew up in São Paulo in a Catholic, conservative family. ◊ Thais lives in the periphery of São Paulo and had an evangelical upbringing. She was 21
years old when we met and she was figuring out what she would like to study.
◊ Jessica,19, was part of the Umbanda community but grew up in an evangelical household. She considered her family to be middle class and conservative.
◊ Isabela was studying at the time and 22 years old. She grew up in the city and had a visual deficiency that shaped most of her life, especially at university.
I met my interviewees in different ways, but in all cases, I was introduced by a mutual connection. I preferred not to approach the women myself, as I did not want to make assumptions about their identities in relation to race, their gender identity and sexuality. These could be topics that are very sensitive or even traumatizing. Two Brazilian professors of the University of Amsterdam gave me the contact information of my first interviewees, Malu and Luiza. At the interview, Luiza
25 was with her girlfriend Heloísa who then participated in the interview. Valentina was the moderator at an event on feminism in the periphery and I approached her afterwards to ask if she would be willing to participate. She later introduced me to Thais, who brought her girlfriend Jessica when we did our interview. I met four of my interviewees through my family; I met Angela and Dandara through an aunt that had worked on organisations related to the LGBT community and Cora, Isabela and Sophia through a relative that was part of an LGBT movement in São Paulo.
Unfortunately, I could not use the data from the interview with Sophia as the quality of the recording was not good enough, to the extent that I could not properly understand our conversation. I had done the interview through a Skype video call and the weak connection caused the recording to be unintelligible. The reason for a Skype interview was that at the time, she was in a different part of the country which I didn’t know before I had already marked the interview. After, I did not want to cancel as she seemed excited to participate. Cora’s interview was also done over Skype as she was on exchange in Europe at the time, but due to a better connection, her recording was clear. While I preferred face-to-face interviews, I thought it would be interesting to have her perspective on the differences between Europe and Brazil relating to her experiences.
In terms of location, I would always ask where the interviewee would feel most at ease. Excluding the Skype interviews, they let me choose the location in every case. I chose to do the interviews at one of the many cultural centres in the city, for multiple reasons. I knew these places would be safe and they would always have a nice café or reading area where it was relatively quiet, so the setting of the interview would not be too serious, but calm enough so the recorder could capture our voices. It was important to me that the environment would be safe in relation to the subjects we would be discussing. The people frequenting the cultural centres were generally there for an event or having a coffee themselves, not paying attention to us and not interested in our
conversation. There were also many of them all throughout the city, making it easier for me and the interviewee to meet halfway.
Two of the interviews were in groups, as I interviewed Luiza and Heloísa together and also Thaís and Jessica. For the latter, Valentina also participated even though she had already done an individual interview already. The two girls were younger and they seemed more comfortable having their friend, Valentina, present. These two interviews were also the longest, each resulting in
approximately 3 hours of data. As did the interview with Valentina. The other interviews were all about an hour, except for the interview with Angela which got cut short after 30 minutes due to an event she had to go to. The interviews of an hour were usually shorter due to the interviewee having another commitment. For the longer interviews, this was not the case I did not realize at the moment that hours had passed as I did not monitor the time. The conversations felt very natural and I did not
26 want to cut anyone short. During the interviews, I would have a notebook in front of me in case a person said something I would like them to elaborate on later on, or when they would make a gesture or body movement that was important to the meaning of their story. I ended up not taking as many notes as I expected since I did not deem it necessary at the moment; I would remember the questions I wanted to ask or remember the way they looked or gestured when in a certain passage when
hearing the recording again. At some instances, I also felt that taking notes would affect the natural feeling of the conversation.
These interviews amounted to a significant amount of data, which I present in the following chapters. Building on the theories by Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Pierre Bourdieu, Mary Douglas and Kimberlé Crenshaw, I have analysed the interviews to form an answer to the question of how their lives and identities are affected by the norm. Some people would talk more about their experiences with racism, as those were more marking in their lives. Others would place more emphasis on their sexuality and the LGBT community. I tried to include passages from each of the interviews as equally as possible. In my analysis, I attempt to present an illustration, as detailed and complete as possible, of how it feels and what it is like to be an LGBT woman of colour in São Paulo. I strived to be as close to the original individual stories and to stay away from constructing my own narrative by taking and placing passages out of context. However, it is not possible to do this in a completely objective manner, as it is based on my personal interpretation of the interviews.
Especially because all the quotes taken from the interviews have been translated from Portuguese to English, making it inevitable that some meaning got lost in the translation. The choice to write the quotes in italics is to accentuate the difference between the quotes, and the parts where I’m
paraphrasing or explaining my analysis. The original quotes in Portuguese can be found at the end of the document. I decided to place them in the endnotes as to not be distracting in the text.
The structure of my analysis might be surprising in relation to my theoretical framework, where I stress the importance of intersectionality. According to the concept, it would be
counterproductive to analyse the aspects of a person’s identity separately. It is necessary to analyse those things together, how they interact and interplay because they influence and shape each other. In my interviews I expected the stories to be fluid and interconnected this way. However, the women themselves spoke of the different aspects quite separately, defining each one individually. I do not know for sure if this was caused by the way I framed my research or my questions. Therefore, in order to provide a more clearly structured, in-depth analysis, I chose to keep this narrative and discuss each aspect separately. This does not mean there was no overlap, there definitely was, also within the interviews. I will try to show the intersectionality in my analysis by relating the concepts of the different chapters to each other. For example, the gender roles in society on what women are
27 expected to be related to racial issues and included norms of heteronormativity. In the end, the three will complement each other and together form a more complete image of these women’s lives.
Unfortunately, I also did not have the space to discuss many other layers of intersectionality in depth, such as religion, the issues of the periphery, or issues such as Isabel’s disability. I do mention them in the analysis, yet their level of complexity made it impossible for me to include an in-depth discussion of these in the limited space of this thesis. This is an important point to keep in mind: there are many other factors important in the lives of the interviewees, which I was not able to discuss here. The intersectional character remains throughout the chapters, as it will always be something to keep in mind.
28
Chapter 5
Race
Racism kills. We see the stories of people who die for being black. I am unaware of a case of a person who died for being white. Never heard. But I have heard of people who died for being black, died for being a woman, died for being lesbian or LGBT. This kills.i
- Valentina
Some interviewees have even called the situation in Brazil a genocide of the black
population, others describe along the same lines. For many people of colour, it is still very difficult to perceive themselves as such, to accept and assume that they are, in fact, people of colour. Something that is repeatedly mentioned by multiple women is that the racism in Brazil is very veiled, or
masked. Racism is usually thought of as verbally or physically abusive acts, and while there are also countless accounts of violent incidents, much of the racism is masked. Many interviewees said that it is so subtle sometimes, that they start to doubt themselves and their experiences. As Cora puts it:
“It's normal, racism. Because it can be in any speech, any action and people do not realize.”ii Valentina told me of a specific situation in which she experienced this sense of insecurity, feeling that she had been discriminated against but not knowing for sure. She explained how she applied for a job through a headhunting company, for a position that she seemed to be perfect for; she checked all the requirements and more. The interview went well, and she was told she was a great candidate, however, a few days later she got the call that unfortunately, they had filled the position. Valentina then returned to the headhunting company to try again, see if there was a different vacancy.
However, they then presented the exact same position, making it apparent that the position she interviewed for was not filled after all.
“Then it’s me with my observations. It was a place that the majority – not the majority, a 100% were
white, with light coloured eyes and everything else. And then we realize, it is these prejudices that we go through, that we have to get around in some way, creating strategies. Of people looking at you in a particular way when you enter certain places, then you say ‘ah, but that's you being paranoid.”iii
All the women expressed having to go through these situations daily and emphasized that the people in their circle often do not believe them. Rather, people say that they are probably
29 followed by a security guard when she entered a store one early morning. At first, she even
questioned if the situation was actually happening, but realised quickly that she was indeed being shadowed by the guard. When she voiced indignance to her teacher later that day, the teacher told her that she could not possibly be right, she was just being crazy.
The reason people do not recognize these experiences or claim them to be false could be explained by looking at Douglas’ theory on how humans perceive the world around them. As has been discussed, people will fit cues they receive from the world into the patterns they have created to understand that world. When they encounter a cue that does not fit into their pattern, they will often either ignore it or reject it rather than change the pattern. Jessica’s teacher, who is white, has
probably never been in the situation Jessica was in. To her, it seemed absurd, and it did not fit into the pattern. Rather than listening to Jessica and broadening her perspectives, she chose to reject the idea instead, claiming that Jessica must have imagined it. It could also be the reason why many acts of racism are veiled, as the behaviour has been so deeply built into people’s system that they do not reflect on them anymore. As they were not associated with racism before, even when someone would point it out now, the response will most likely be similar to that of Jessica’s teacher.
There are also ways in which racism is embedded in Brazilian society that are less subtle. In the media, there was little to no representation of the black community, according to Valentina. That is now changing, fortunately, she adds. Where before there would only be black actors in the
telenovelas about slavery, now people of colour also fulfilled other roles that did not revolve around their skin colour. Another important way the stereotypes and prejudices against people of colour manifest are in the beauty ideals that heavily influence Brazilian society. These state that people should strive to have light skin, blonde and straight hair, light eyes, and being thin. Important to note is that here the norms on race and those on gender intersect. The norm that defines how a woman should look relates to the larger discourse in society on what it means to be a woman, which will be further discussed in the next chapter. Yet, here it also defines the status of white women and women of colour. All the women I talked to felt that these beauty standards had shaped their childhood and teens in significant ways. Jessica explained how she grew up in a predominantly black family, in a mainly white environment. She said how she always suffered prejudice from her peers at school, because they could not accept that a black girl would enjoy the same privileges as them, going to the same school and wearing the same clothes. “And I feel that in my family as well” she explains, “that
somehow they do not accept that they are black, they are from the outskirts.” This influenced her
30 “[we had to] have the nicest house in the neighbourhood and all had to be good, you have to walk in
the best clothes because you are black, and you cannot talk that way, you cannot hang out with those people, because you're already black. And it seems that being black, to them is something wrong. So, since I am little, they wanted to put me in bale, when I started -at about 12 years old- playing in an orchestra, I started playing the violin. Somehow, I thought it was beautiful to be blonde, and I was totally platinum blonde and I represented the orchestra. So, I always had that incentive, that push of hanging out with white people, in that higher social [class] than me because I had to stay close to them to be someone because only being black and the way my family is, was never good. So, you always had that detour like that.iv
Cora told me a similar story, feeling great pressure her entire life from both her mother and society to always be perfect and how she had to dress and look like a white person. Similar to Jessica, she had a classical upbringing, playing in the orchestra, going to a school where the majority was white and mainly hanging out with white people. She could not have her hair curly, she said, as she had at the moment I interviewed her. This is only since a year and a half ago, she explained, as she used to straighten her hair since she was 12 years old. Before that, her mother used to braid her hair, so it would not look like “black hair”. She also said to have worn coloured contacts, in order to have light coloured eyes.
“There is something else very heavy,” she says later on in the interview, “that when I was little, my
mother would bathe us in milk. Me and my middle sister, which is supposed to make you lighter, you know. If you would bathe children in milk, the children would become lighter. You’re not supposed to be as dark as my skin is.” She immediately voices her indignation with this passage of her
childhood: “after I went to study this, I saw how horrible it was. Why would you give a child a milk
bath to make her lighter? It makes no sense. Or you start straightening the hair of a 9-year-old child because she has to keep her hair straight for her to be perfect and be accepted by society. For her to be less excluded. It's absurd!”v
The pressure of these beauty standards is also frequently experienced at their work or other
professional environments. Heloísa had recently left a job where she was required to have her hair up at all times. Being a bilingual executive secretary, she works in an extremely formal setting, as she explained.
31 “When I worked in this area, I could not have my natural hair. … they neither wanted my hair loose,
or even in a ponytail. They wanted me to keep it in a little bun because I had to be an exemplary black woman to them. Because after all, I was the secretary of the president of the company. I had to maintain myself on his level.” At her next job, she had to deal with similar issues. “in that last office it was the same situation, I could wear my hair loose, but it could not be big, voluminous. ... When we wash our hair, it automatically becomes more voluminous. So on those days that I washed it, I could not go to work having it loose, or when my boss would arrive, I had to run to the bathroom to put more cream in it. Because sometimes I would be in front of her and she would say that I was not presentable to be in front of her. She would tell me to tie my hair up and to put on make-up.”vi
The non-acceptance of their black identity that the parents of both Jessica and Cora are expressing, is related to their strong desire to fit into the norm, thus negating those characteristics that would contest this. Again, following Bourdieu’s and Douglas rationale, the norms become an inherent part of the way these women view the world, as they are built into the structures in their mind that they use to make sense of the world around them. By being shown only one type of woman presented as successful, one which is white, blonde and skinny, they embody that belief. Success will be associated with that image, while the things that contradict that image will not. Especially due to the strong prejudice and stereotypes in Brazilian society the image of a woman with dark skin and voluminous hair will be associated with negative connotations. Not in the minds of the women themselves, but also in the minds of other people. This could lead to why Heloísa is pushed to wear her hair up at work and why the parents of Cora and Jessica negate their black identity.
What often happens is that the parents have been taught the same thing by their parents, who learned it from theirs, in other words, the norms are also passed down generationally because all generations tried to suffer the least amount of prejudice possible. Yet, there is also the historical, cultural and social significance this identity carries. To assume all this as part of your identity can be confronting, challenging and disheartening. It means seeing and carrying the legacy of all those who came before, that suffered for centuries and had to fight centuries for their freedom. It means facing that the entire societal, political and economic structure of your country does not work in your favour or even works against you. As
Valentina states:
“We have to survive and resist. It is to resist every day. I do not want to perpetuate what my sibling,
