Football and the ‘new’ gender order: Brazilian cinema in the late twentieth century

Abstract

As an integral part of popular culture, football has been the central theme of countless movies from around the world. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, after enduring 15 years of a bloody dictatorship that had, among other crimes, censored free speech, Brazilian cinema embraced the critique of the social order that was spreading around the country. It produced movies that used football as a plot device to question the conservative representations of gender and sexual relations that belonged to the darkest years of the dictatorship. In this paper, we analyse late twentieth century Brazilian football cinema and reveal how this genre exhibited to the country a new gender order where hegemonic masculinity was criticized on its own terrain: the football field. By using a descriptive analysis, we focus on two movies where the gender order and the sexual affairs of footballers are turned upside down. Finally, we argue that these productions were testimony to a new era not just for Brazilian culture, but for a whole society which was emerging from an era of political, cultural and human obscurity.

Notes

1. Holanda and Ventura, Cultura em Transito.

2. Louro, Por que estudar gênero na era dos cyborgs; Deutsch, ‘Undoing Gender’.

3. Connell, Masculinities.

4. Connell, op cit.

5. Hollander, ‘Resisting Vulnerability’.

6. The dictatorship lasted 21 years. In 1985, the Parliament elected the first non-military President after this period, Tancredo Neves, who died before he took office. However, that was a non-democratic election; it took until 1989 for Brazilians to be given the chance to vote to their first elected President.

7. Brizola, 1922–2004. He went into exile in 1964, but ended up being unique in Brazilian politics by being elected to govern in two different states (Rio Grande do Sul – before the military dictatorship; and Rio de Janeiro, after returning from exile).

8. Arraes, 1916–2005. He was three-time governor of Pernambuco, a state in Brazilian north-east. After the military coup in 1964, he went to jail, staying there 11 months before going to exile in Argel.

9. Holanda and Ventura, op cit.

10. Connell, op cit.; Vickers, Gender.

11. Lula, the union leader who led the enormous workers’ strikes at the end of the 1970s and beginning of the 1980s, would later become elected president of the country in 2002 and was re-elected in 2006, running the country until 2010.

12. Born in 1941, Fernando Gabeira is a writer, journalist, revolutionary and politician. He was part of the guerrilla group that kidnapped the US ambassador in Brazil in 1969 to protest against the dictatorship. He was captured and sent to jail in 1970, where he stayed for 9 months until being sent to exile abroad. He was a representative in the National Parliament during the 1990s and is now with the leftist Greens party.

13. Anderson, ‘Inclusive Masculinity’; Knijnik, ‘The Black, the White and the Green’.

14. Coad, The Metrosexual.

15. Connell, op cit.

16. Caetano Veloso (known as Caetano) was born in 1942; singer, composer and guitarist. He has been awarded five Latin Grammy Awards and is widely regarded as one of the great songwriters in the contemporary world. His style of music, its lyrics and his behaviour (long hair, left-wing political opinions and progressive ideas) were threatening to the dictatorship. He was arrested in 1969 and later exiled, living two years abroad in London.

17. Gilberto Gil (known as Gil) was born in 1942; singer, composer and guitarist. He was seen as a political threat to the military regime, having been arrested in 1969 and imprisoned for nine months before going into exile in London. He made a triumphant return, serving as Brazilian Minister of Culture for five years (2003–2008). He is an innovate musician and received a Latin Grammy award in recognition of his talent.

18. ‘As Freneticas’ (1977–1983) was a group which started singing in a night club called ‘Frantic Dancing Days’ in Rio de Janeiro. The initial idea was having waitresses who would go to the stage to sing a few songs in the middle of the night, but as their success was so huge, they became stars in the national pop scene.

19. In 2009, Tatiana Issa launched an awarded documentary that reconstructs the trajectory of the Dzi croquettes group, which can be found on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgy8fXEqw98.

20. Anderson, op cit; Knijnik, op cit.

21. Connell, op cit.

22. Cazuza (1958–90); singer, composer and poet; one of the most beautiful male voices in Brazilian pop music. He was a self-proclaimed bisexual.

23. Renato Russo (1960–96); singer and one of the most important composers of Brazilian rock music. He also wrote about drugs, politics and bisexualism.

24. Mc Leod, ‘We are the Champions’.

25. Albuquerque,’ Corpo civilizado’.

26. Dias, Urbanidades da natureza.

27. Oliveira and Costa, ‘Historias e Memorias’.

28. Maranhao and Knijnik, ‘Futebol mulato’.

29. Socrates and Gozzi, A democracia corintiana.

30. Knijnik, ‘Visions of Gender Justice’.

31. Melo, Cinema e esporte; Melo and Fortes, ‘O surfe no cinema e a sociedade brasileira’.

32. Asa Branca is the name of the main character of the film. It means literally ‘White Wing’. Those who knew him personally simply called him ‘Asa’.

33. Juscelino Kubitschek (1902–1976) was Brazilian president (elected) from 1956 to 1961. He was the president who built Brasilia, moving the Federal Capital from Rio de Janeiro to the ‘new modern and planned city’. Well known as a ladies’ man and also as a corrupted politician, the car accident that killed him was never fully explained.

34. Cavaleiro and Vianna, ‘Chutar e preciso’.

35. Garrincha (1933–1983); known affectionately as the ‘Joy of the People’, was one of the best players in Brazilian football history. He was part of two World Cup victories (1958 and 1962). Playing with Pele in the national team, they never faced a defeat while together. But he had a difficult life off the field, including alcohol problems; his story may have partially inspired the film-maker of Asa Branca.

36. Walmor Chagas (1930–2013); one of the most brilliant actors during the twentieth century in Brazilian theatre, TV shows and movies.

37. Connell, op cit, 76.

38. A huge green area in the city of Sao Paulo. It could be said the Ibirapuera is Sao Paulo’s version of New York’s Central Park.

39. Pornochanchadas were soft-core sex comedies popular in Brazil in the early twentieth century.

40. The other two are O Olho Mágico do Amor (The Peephole of Love – 1981) and Estrela Nua (Nude Star – 1984).

41. Both Wladimir and Casagrande were protagonists of the ‘Corinthians Democracy’, as mentioned earlier, and at the time of filming, were playing as professionals in Corinthians. They were very popular footballers and played in the Brazilian National Team for a brief period.

42. Regina Case was born in 1954; she is a famous actress in Brazilian TV shows and theatre, best known for comedy.

43. Knijnik, op cit; Votre and Mourao, ‘Women’s Soccer in Brazil’.

44. Socrates and Gozzi, op cit.

45. Cavaleiro and Vianna, op cit.

46. Patricio Bisso is an Argentinean comedian who went to live in Sao Paulo in the 1980s. He created several female comical characters in theatre movies and TV shows (as the Russian sexologist Olga del Volga), always dressing in women’s clothes.

47. Melo, op cit.

48. Melo and Fortes, op cit.

49. Socrates and Gozzi, op cit.