Pleasuring body parts: women and soap operas in Brazil

Abstract

In this article I look at women's interpretations of one of the most popular forms of entertainment across Latin America, namely telenovelas (soap operas). In particular, I look at how they are incorporated into the everyday lives of the poorest women in Brazil. I find that not only are they a central form of sociability for many women living in conditions of poverty; but also that women employ them as a means of challenging negative valuations around their bodies. In this context the female virginity taboo frames many women's views and experiences of sexuality. I argue that it conflates female sexuality with dominant notions of ownership and control of the vagina. This causes many women to experience their vaginas as shameful. It also leaves them vulnerable to harmful social sanctions. Yet, escape from this leads many women to experience their bodies in more painful and damaging ways. However, by investing in a cult of suffering that is prevalent both in their own lives and in the glamorous and wealthy world depicted in the soap operas, women find pleasure not only in suffering, but, crucially, in their negated body parts.

Keywords:

• body
• Brazil
• gender
• sexuality
• soap operas
• virginity

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lisa Brown

Lisa Brown is a post-doctoral fellow in the Gender Studies Programme, School of Anthropology, Gender, and Historical Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Her research interests include gender and media, sexuality and embodiment, and post-structuralist feminist theory