When BJJ bloggers offer critiques of what they view as sexism in our beloved BJJ – bloggers such Jiu Jiu, Georgette Oden, Megan Williams and Can Sönmez – responses range from applause to threats of violence to indifference. One theme that I have encountered when challenging sexist representations of women in BJJ, especially when discussing Manto’s now infamous nipple + grappling photos, and which has resurfaced in discussions of Kyra Gracie’s gi-and-arse photograph, is the idea that non-Western cultures have set a different bar of acceptability for sexual representations of women.
This idea bugs me for a variety of reasons:
- The idea that women in the West have a ‘more evolved’ status in society has been used by Western leaders from Disreali to Bush to justify imperialist or quasi-imperialist action to ‘save’ women, coincidentally while bombing, enslaving, and otherwise economically and socially oppressing those women and their families.
- The suggestion that women in the West are ‘more equal’ than elsewhere minimises and dismisses the real challenges to gender equality that persist in Western cultures.
- The notion that Western women enjoy higher status than elsewhere demonstrates a distasteful paternalism that pats itself on the back for ‘allowing’ Western women such status while subjugating non-Western women.
During discussions of the Manto photoshoot, there were suggestions that the shoot was done in Eastern Europe where pictures of boobs aren’t a big deal; that it was somehow not problematic to sexualise women in Eastern Europe. Similarly, for the Kyra-butt shot, this comment appeared on Reddit:
I have the overwhelming feeling reading the Megjitsu blog that it’s a very Anglo-centric view of feminism. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but I think Brazilians (and Latin Americans as a whole) have a very different view of all of this. These sorts of images are celebrated there not just amongst the men, but the women as well. I guess I look at carnivale as examples of this.
I don’t like mixing the ideas of sex and jiu-jitsu, but Brazilians think about things very different than the Anglo world.
I think that this comment comes from a good place – one that is seeking to empathise and to understand – and it does make some valid points. Of course, there are broad cultural differences between Western Anglo-American culture and other world cultures. Sure, every individual Brazilian has a different perspective on, for the purposes of this post, gender issues. Absolutely, Brazilian feminisms can and do have distinct agendas. Most definitely, my feminism is informed by my culture, my class, my ethnicity – all the things that are jumbled up to make my personal subjectivity. Similarly, there certainly are tensions between the agendas of feminisms in different parts of the world and a certain complacency around the sexualisation of women in emerging economies, camouflaged as cultural-sensitivity, can be apparent in the writings of Western feminists; check out Megan’s honest introspection into her own views of the sexualisation of Brazilian women. I think apologies for the sexualisation of women in non-Western cultures mistakenly conflate a societal tolerance for the sexualisation of women and (local) feminist tolerance for the sexualisation of women.
The reputation Colombia has for ‘its women’ is notorious and stereotypically sexist…What many fail to notice, however, is that this ‘hotness’ comes from a sad place, from a deeply patriarchal Catholic society that cannot see women outside the virgin/whore dichotomy. (Jaramillo)
Rather than seeing the sexualisation of Latin American women as unproblematic, isn’t it possible that Latin American cultures may be more subject to expressing the priorities and desires of a dominant masculinity? While I have no expertise in Latin American feminisms, Brazilian culture or other salient subject areas, I set out to see what I could see.
Permeated by a patriarchal political culture, they [the political elites] have remained notoriously resistant to the inclusion of women. This has resulted in a major paradox for Brazilian feminists: on the one hand, the presence of a wide and well articulated women’s movement, and on the other, a notorious absence of women in decision making positions. (Alcântara and Sardenberg)
I’ve tried to educate myself with some online research into Latin American feminisms. What are the issues central to Latin American feminisms and, in particular, what are the perspectives of Latin American feminists on sexualised representations of women? Clearly, this research is limited to easily accessible online material which is published in English. Though very cursory and narrow, I do think my reading has given me a feeling for the issues that excite Latin American feminists, such as significant activism around reproductive rights, and it seems reasonable to suggest that the sexualisation of women is an issue for feminists in Brazil and neighbouring countries.
…western feminists aim for sexual liberation, while in other parts of the world women want freedom from sexualization (Kimball)
Discussions of feminism in Brazil confirm that there is a vibrant women’s movement extant in Brazil and that Brazilian feminists struggle with a complicated intermingling of class, race and religion: ‘…it is the most marked form of a post-slave society, which despite the myth of its racial democracy, still has an internal social and economic division with strong ethnic distinctions, and of class and gender as well’ (Maluf). It is clear that Brazilian feminists work through a variety of channels for women’s reproductive and sexual rights and to encourage and demand women’s role in decision-making processes. The Brazilian women’s movement is making advances and Dilma Rousseff, a self-identified feminist, seeks to use her position a Brazil’s president to advance the country’s women’s movement. However, as women increasingly enter previously male-dominated spaces, such as the Rio police force, sexualisation continues to undermine and cheapen Brazilian women’s achievements:
Every day I hear [jokes about being a woman]. Today they said, go and put on your bikini for your interview. (Phillips)
While Brazilian feminists agitate for greater access to power, for the rights of all Brazilian women including Afro-Brazilian and indigenous women, sexualised and objectified portrayals of women’s bodies persist. For instance, the ad campaigns of the Devassa bear brand, devassa meaning ‘slut’, elide women’s bodies and beer, offering both for sale to male consumers (Britto). Where they encounter objectified representations of women, it seems that Latina feminists deride rather than celebrate these depictions.
So, what the heck am I getting at? I find the implication that because Brazil (or any other country) has a ‘sexier’ culture, sexualised representations of women aren’t really sexualised at all – ie sexiness is a ‘norm’ so there’s nothing problematic or demeaning about these sorts of images – to be incorrect. On the one hand, I believe there is confusion between ‘sexy’ images of women (or men), and sexualised or objectified images of women (or men). I tried to unpack this difference here, and JiuJiu has recently published a useful discussion of sexy versus sexualised. On the other hand, I believe this point of view is rooted in a post-imperial Western smugness which claims the relative equality of women in one nation versus another as, essentially, a badge of patriarchal honour and tolerance rather than a reflection of feminists’ own struggles and achievements.
The argument that in cultures where sexualised portrayals of women are more mainstream those images are insignificant in the undermining of gender equality was also employed during ‘Manto-gate’, with the insistence that East Europeans just see sex differently so we can’t use our Anglo-American values to judge their representations of women. I say, this response to feminist – Western or otherwise – condemnations of sexualised representations of women is fallacious and based on an acceptance of how patriarchy may operate in any given culture. While certainly my feminism is informed by my own white, middle-class, American background and there are certainly important differences between feminisms informed by different ethnic, cultural and geographical factors, it is clear from even a narrow reading of Brazilian feminisms that women in Brazil (and Latin America more widely) struggle for sexual equality and against the stereotype of the sexy Latina. Thus, sexualised representations of women in Brazil are indeed problematic and can be seen as representing the dominance of a patriarchal masculinity. Of course, I am not a Brazilian feminist and I don’t wish to layer my subjectivity onto a cultural milieu I have very little understanding of. Nevertheless, I have enjoyed trying to broaden my perspective and understand issues in contemporary Brazilian feminism and I hope this post has showcased some of the views of Latin American feminists, themselves.
References and Further Reading
Alcântara, Ana Alice and Cecilia Sardenberg. ‘Brazil: “State Feminism” at Work’. OpenDemocracy.net, 18 Apr 2012. Web. 10 Oct 2013.
Frayssinet, Fabiana. ‘New Feminism Tears Down Walls in Brazil’. GlobalIssues.org, 4 Jan 2013. Web. 10 Oct 2013.
Jaramillo, Juliana Jiménez. ‘The Secret Service Prostitution Scandal in Colombia Proves Sexism Alive and Well’. Slate.com, 17 Apr 2012. Web. 10 Oct 2013.
Johansen, Julia. ‘BJJ Ads: Sexy vs Sexual’. JiuJiuBJJ.com, 28 Sep 2013. Web. 10 Oct 2013.
Kimball, Gayle. ‘How Third World Feminism Differs from First World Feminism’. Fem2ptO.com, 4 Mar 2012. Web. 10 Oct 2013.
Britto, Juliana. ‘Devassa’. LatinaFeminista.com, 29 Mar 2012. Web. 10 Oct 2013.
Maluf, Sônia Weidner. ‘Brazilian Feminisms: Central and Peripheral Issues’. Palgrave-Journals.com, 2011. Web. 10 Oct 2013.
Phillips, Tom. ‘Feminism and M-16s: Transforming Macho Policing in Rio’. TheGuardian.com, 28 Jul 2009. Web. 10 Oct 2013.
Sardenberg, Cecilia. ‘Brazilian Feminists On Alert’. OpenDemocracy.net, 28 Feb 2010. Web. 10 Oct 2013.
Schmidt, Rite Terezinha. ‘Refuting Feminism: Brazilian Lettered Culture’s Complacency/Complicity’. Estudos Feministas, 2007. Web. 10 Oct 2013.
Tarlau, Rebecca. ‘Experiencing Feminism in Brazil’. The Journal of the International Institute, Winter 2006. Web. 10 Oct 2013.
Williams, Megan. ‘My Mistake in the Kyra Gracie Hullabaloo..’. BJiuJitsu.blogspot.co.uk, 20 Aug 2013. Web. 11 Oct 2013.
11 Oct 2013 @ 8:38 am
Nice article! I always appreciate hearing your voice in this. I think you do a good job researching and presenting a very even voice. You’re my inspiration, lady!
One thing I have not mentioned in my articles is that, although I’m American, I’ve lived outside of the United states for the past 6 years – 2+ in Ukraine and 3+ in Korea. They have radically different ideas of sexuality as well. Their idea of feminism is also different. I’m surrounded by different types of images and different ideals of female beauty and what is feminine.
In any case, not sure that’s here nor there.
But to say that no one should speak about anything that is not part of their culture is an idea I strongly reject. Yes, we should worry about imposing our cultural norms on them, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t speak about it. I dislike people who comment on my blog saying “They’re Brazilian, so just get over it.”
For me, okay, so Brazilian women may have different ideas about sexuality and what is sexy, but then theoretically so should the men. If it’s “normal” in Brazil, I doubt they’d be having the same reactions that these American men are having – so them to defend their sexist comments about the photos – totally ridiculous.
Not sure I had a point there – but I think there was one.
11 Oct 2013 @ 8:45 am
Totally with you and agree that it is important to try to appreciate cultural differences, broadly speaking and as they relate to feminism.
Even with that in mind, I’m not buying the notion that these cultural differences neutralise the sexism of sexualised representations of women and it appears that feminists in these cultures share that view.
I think what I’m trying to work out and express is that a societal tolerance for sexualised representations of women does not equate to feminist tolerance for these representations on the part of local feminists. This is where it gets tricky as there are as many feminisms as there are feminists and there will be ideological camps that celebrate the sexualisation of women’s bodies as liberating; this point of view was not apparent in the little bit of research I was able to undertake and I feel pretty confident that Latin American feminists themselves seek to breakdown the sexy stereotypes that can hound them.
PS Inspiration is a two-way street and I love how you represent complex ideas on your blog *hugs*
11 Oct 2013 @ 12:54 pm
Thanks for the writeup Meg. I was actually the one that wrote the comment on Reddit and I’m glad to see that you investigated the issue a bit. I had only spoke from personal experience of living in Brazil for several years, but in reality that gives only a tiny snapshot of the culture and almost nothing about the feminist movements there.
I’ve recently read an article (sorry, can’t find it right now) on how a lot of psychological theories of the past 100 years are found that they are almost completely Western-centric in so far as the results weren’t carrying over to other cultures. I’m wary now of people imposing their cultural norms on other cultures as it seems to have academic credence and having seen it first hand myself while I’ve been living abroad.
Getting back to the issue, I think the issues that you raise about Latin American women are definitely true and are quite prevalent in Brazilian culture. So it can be quite hard to distinguish with what’s a real issue and what can be just considered a cultural norm or more.
Finally, I had noticed that amongst the expats in Brazil, it seemed that the Americans often had the hardest coming to grips with aspects of the sexuality in Brazilian culture. Not to point fingers, but just a note.
Anyways, keep up the good work!
11 Oct 2013 @ 1:20 pm
Hi Josh! Thank you so much for your comment.
I 100% hear you. You make some important points and I do not wish to assert the dominance of one culture over another. I fully accept that in many disciplines, (white, masculine) Western norms have dictated what is ‘typical’ and that should be and is challenged. While I may fall into that trap myself, it is not my intention.
My point would be that cultural norms can be and are contested from within any given culture. So even if something is considered typical from an internal perspective, or aberrant from external perspective, it remains that ‘norms’ are contested and not all values are embraced equally across a culture. So, in this instance, while we could make the as yet unqualified assertion that Brazilian culture is ‘sexier’ that does not mean feminists in Brazil are not actively pursuing freedom from sexualisation. The women’s movement in Brazil (or any locale) will not blithely accept cultural norms, so why should we? In other words, just because something is culturally acceptable doesn’t mean it is uncontested or unproblematic.
From another view, Hooters, Page 3, ring girls and other sexualised women’s roles are culturally acceptable in the US and UK, and the women who fulfil these roles have their own agency. Nevertheless, it is legitimate for me to contest the sexism which, to me, underpins these roles and to be disappointed by women’s choice to participate. Doesn’t mean I hate, or am jealous of these women, simply that I find this sort of sexualisation of women to be retrograde and selling oneself short. It is okay for me to think that and is okay for people to disagree. The point being, cultural norms, or ‘doxa’ in a Bourdieussian sense, may enjoy a broad social approval but: they are not static; they change over time; they are contested.
Thank you again for your comment, as I mentioned in the post I thought your Reddit comment made some good points and I don’t wish to single you out as a vicious apologist – that’s not how I read your comment – but I did think it raised some interesting questions that warranted a response.
11 Oct 2013 @ 8:13 pm
very interesting article, i appreciate your cultural sensitivity. nevertheless, as a female and a feminist who has trained jiu jitsu in eastern europe for some years now, the manto ad needs no explanation or defense, cultural sensitivity etc, it is demeaning. “eastern european culture” (though of course eastern europe isn’t just a lump place and things differ country to country) is my culture, and as a part of that culture the manto ad offends me. however, such representations of women are not very high on my list of worries since there is plenty of blatant sexism tossed at me everyday (hence my paranoid “anon”), on and off the tatami, that i don’t have the energy to worry about manto, and i wonder if maybe other jiu jtsu practicing feminists in latin america don’t have the energy to worry about pictures of kyra gracie without pants because they are probably spending it elsewhere. as far as jiu jitsu goes, train hard, win medals, and come visit us over here so sometimes there can be more than one girl on the tatami. safety in numbers
15 Oct 2013 @ 5:48 pm
Hi anon, thank you very much for sharing your thoughts! Let me be clear that I absolutely agree that the Manto ad is demeaning and sexist and I am not in any way buying into ‘people in Eastern Europe think its okay, so its okay’ argument that gets tossed around. I appreciate too that it is a ‘rich woman’s’ problem to be able to focus on sexual representations of women versus other more pressing matters of gender inequality; an idea worth keeping in mind. All the best with your training.
11 Oct 2013 @ 9:12 pm
Thank you so much Meg, for taking time (with a baby and a career and home and training and everything else!) to do this well-researched and -reasoned, scholarly look at a common retort. I can’t think of anything useful to add. Brava.
15 Oct 2013 @ 5:54 pm
Many thanks for your kind words, Georgette. Has been bugging me for a while and was keen to get something down to harden my thoughts around this. You wrote something really great on a thread, perhaps on JiuJiu’s blog, of the importance of not accepting the acceptable or we’ll have no positive change (I’m paraphrasing) and I think that is dead-on and sort of where I’m trying to end up with this discussion.
22 Oct 2013 @ 3:16 am
Ah!!! I love this so much I started to tear up…you really are amazing.
“…western feminists aim for sexual liberation, while in other parts of the world women want freedom from sexualization (Kimball)”
This is the reason I was a bit ashamed at taking the “but she’s Brazilian” route with Kyra. I deal with this personally as a Black woman in the West…our bodies being historically sexualized and many of us, outside of religious environments, are searching for freedom from sexualization.
I just love this and can’t say anything else.
23 Oct 2013 @ 7:50 pm
Oh, Megan, this is too kind and it makes me feel good that this resonated with you. I’m not at all trying to speak for anyone here or pretend that I ‘know’ what it is like for women in other cultural or ethnic contexts; or for any other individual, for that matter. Just really wanted to make it clear that just because something, like the sexualisation of women, appears, from the outside, to be culturally acceptable, doesn’t mean it isn’t contested by women/feminists within that cultural setting. Oh, and by the by, that shizzle is acceptable in Western cultural contexts too, where it is contested by feminists. I know I’m singing to the choir with you, I just get a bit peed off with the notion that some Western cultures are super enlightened as far as gender goes, when there are clear, quantifiable and significant inequalities extant in Anglo-American society, so looking down one’s nose at gender inequalities elsewhere has more than a tinge of hubris.
29 Oct 2013 @ 11:46 pm
Hi, Meg. I enjoyed this piece a lot.
Especially, I’ve been pleased to read the line you’ve drawn between the attractive and the wrongly sexualized. It’s not just that I’ve always felt this, but the position seems rarely articulated – maybe because it could be misinterpreted.
I’d be a poor excuse even for a male feminist, but I like your wider analysis very much. This is an area which could be explored further, if you’re not careful. 🙂 It’s been enriching to see your particular take on it.
1 Nov 2013 @ 4:05 pm
Hi John, thanks very much for your thoughtful comment. I enjoyed looking into these issues and only wish I had the opportunity and the language abilities to delve deeper. 🙂
28 May 2014 @ 12:19 pm
Hi.
Really enjoyed reading this, even if it reminds me I’m a caveman that clearly doesn’t read enough. I often dismiss feminisms glibly as partisan barriers to egalitarianism as quickly as many other men might dismiss it for their own reasons, but I read this and suspect that I’m chickening out of examining the way I think about and behave towards women because I’m afraid I won’t like what I find.
It doesn’t hurt to be reminded you need to think and read more, and perhaps be a little more brave. So – thanks.
15 Jul 2014 @ 11:19 am
Hi Mike H, thank so much for this. Very rewarding to have this kind of feedback. And for the record, cavemen are not so reflective!