Sunday 18 November 2012

BRAZILIAN SEXIST MEDIA LOCKS THE FEMINISM WAY


By Alexandre Figueiredo

There's something going wrong at the womankind view worked by brazilian media. In part, the well-known "popular women" have represented by the media as sex objects, doing nothing but a mere body exhibition, have nothing important to do to the brazilian people.

Since the success of the Bahia's group É O Tchan in the 90's, resembling the previous success of the ass-worshiped entertainers like Gretchen and Rita Cadillac (former dancer from the presenter Chacrinha's TV shows) in the late 70's, the brazilian sexist media market developed to seduct the poor men stimulating her sexual wishes to the extreme level.

In the 70's, it was very private to the adult people, but in the 90's it grew by the astonishing way. In first, muses like the former É O Tchan dancer, Carla Perez, have shown her booty dance even for children. There was no moral control, families allowed their kids to enjoy and imitate Carla's dance. To being worst, one of É O Tchan songs is called "Dança do Bumbum" (Booty Dance).

Carla Perez left É O Tchan and then married Harmonia do Samba's singer Xanddy, when she was replaced by Sheila Mello, who joint the group beside the brunette dancer Scheila Carvalho. The Sheilas, as the female dancing duo were known, left the group in their reputation crisis, when intelectuals considered É O Tchan one of the main icons of the cultural crisis in the Brazil's late 90's.

A little bit before the É O Tchan success, some muses have sctrict popularity in a TV show. The Viva a Noite show, presented by Gugu Liberato and transmitted by SBT network - owned by presenter and TV entrepreneur Silvio Santos - , had an attraction called Banheira do Gugu (Gugu's Bathtub), when one man and one woman dive in a bathtub, disputting a soap bar. The competitors usually clung to obtain possession of the object.

The Banheira do Gugu section revealed muses as Solange Gomes, Renata Banhara, Helen Ganzarolli and Nana Gouvea, who recently caused controversy posing for photos in the places in New York affected by the hurricane Sandy, which made a tragedy in USA and Central America.

But another intelectual generation was raised not to contest the cultural crisis in Brazil, but to support and applaud, using as pretext an alleged prejudice by the organized society. Those intelectuals, formed by sociologist and former Brazil's president Fernando Henrique Cardoso ideas, defended the cultural mediocrity as a "expression of the 'periferias'".

"Periferia" is an expression used by the intelectual brazilian mainstream to define the poor suburban areas mostly occupied by "favelas", lots of irregular house constructions resulting by poverty and estate social exclusion.

And the campaign to reaffirm the cultural mediocrity as a "real popular culture" carried a type of "popular women" with median beauty and a body shape usually exaggerate. This type was leaded by the É O Tchan dancers heiresses, the "funk carioca" (brazilian Miami bass) dancers and entertainers, the well-know "mulheres-frutas" ("fruit-ladies").

The "mulheres-frutas" don't absolutely have a fruit nickname. Some have fruit nicknames, as Mulher Melancia (Watermelon Woman), Mulher Melão (Melon Woman), Mulher Moranguinho (Little Strawberry Woman) and Mulher Maçã (Apple Woman). But there's dancers with meat nicknames, Mulher Filé (Fillet Woman) and Mulher Caviar (Cavier Woman), and similar with non specific nicknames, as Valesca Popozuda.

Other alleged-popular muses are the Panicats, stage assistants and dancers from the comic show Pânico na TV, originally transmitted by Rede TV! network and currently transmitted by TV Bandeirantes network, renamed to Pânico na Band.

The first Panicats generation were included Nicole Bahls (pictured above) - who had some photos published by foreign celebrity portals as Egotastic and Hollywood Tuna and had a brief love affair with the american rapper Akon - , Dani Bolina, Lizi Benites, Dani Souza, Babi Rossi and former Big Brother Brasil (a TV Globo franchising by Endemol's TV show) Jacqueline Khury.

The Panicats have the status, in the alleged-popular brazilian muses, compared to the Victoria's Secret in the fashion world. But the apparent sophistication doesn't go to the point to make those girls so smart, they're just relatively cool for their scene.

Other muses like then are the Miss Bumbum and Garota da Lage competitors, the Big Brother Brasil former muses - as Priscila Pires, Anamara, Lisa Khey and Maíra Cardi - , football and MMA muses (respectively known as Musas do Brasileirão and Ring Girls) and particular cases like the former Universidade Bandeirantes (Uniban) student, Geisy Arruda.

Geisy was popularly known in 2009, when she went to a class in Uniban, in São Paulo city. Using a slinky, Geisy Arruda was booed by the college roommates. The fact, however, became a factoid, and the controversy produced made Geisy's rise to fame, being one more muse to make her fame using the sex appeal as an end in itself.

SERIOUS PROBLEMS

Those popular muses had several serious problems, because they just appear to make sensuality and not do anything important in show business. They almost never show theirselves wearing discreet clothing and, in some cases, they make gaffes with the intention to pull sensationalist media notes.

One example. In a walk around a Rio de Janeiro's airport (probably the Santos Dumont airport), former Big Brother Brasil star, Maíra Cardi, made a lot of pouting expressions and showed her cleavage out of context, and smiled so silly moreover.

Compare this notice to the cases when brazilian actresses, models and journalists popularly considered sex symbols, as Juliana Paes, Deborah Secco, Luana Piovani, Alessandra Ambrosio and Patrícia Poeta, walk in the airport ambients. They look so discreet and so simple, and not necessarily wear sensual clothes.

The actresses, models and journalists sexual and afectively desired by men can be so sexy, but these women don't rely on their sex appeal to make their fame and notices. If necessary, they can dress so discreet and talk about other subjects that don't be always about sex, love relatioships or body gym.

The alleged-popular muses, unfortunately, only depend to make their fame around sex, love relationships and body gym. They live for their bodies, and Nicole Bahls, for example, was called a whore by some celebrities as Dani Bolina and TV actress Luana Piovani. Nicole plans to sue then and she affirms she's not a whore.

Alright. But these "popular" muses don't make anything so different. They only use discreet clothes when the winter brings so cold. They are able to show cleavage even in the catholic masses, but they are not able to talk about politics and sophisticated culture.

Another example. The brazilian journalist Elaine Bast, from TV Globo network, who lives in New York and is a fan of alternative groups like Sonic Youth and Jesus & Mary Chain, is known for her impressive beauty. But Elaine can give an interview to just talk about politics, journalism and rides around New York, doesn't needing to talk about sex and body gym.

Nicole Bahls has not its privilege. She can't give an interview avoiding to talk about sex and similar subjects. She can't give an interview to only talk about politics and culture. Her image is very associated by the cult of body, no matter she is or not a whore. The fact to her showing her body without a specific context says anything.

In the end, the "popular" muses got less advantage to women who are sexy but not show their sensuality everytime. It means that sensuality cannot be an end in itself, but an interesting detail for a woman's profile, a small element that never can replace the intelligence and talent. Real women don't be sexy without contexts, but when they show their sensuality, they do better than vulgar muses.

Sex is a thing that can't be shown anytime. Sex is a question of surprise and context. To show so much female bodies - there's a brazilian slang, "mostrar demais" (to show to much), usually diffused by sexist media - locks the feminism way, because it restricts the image of women as mere sexual objects, and it makes so tiring, so boring and so tedious, and not shows the real essence of woman nature.

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