Brazilian women’s toughest opponent: Sexism
It might be the RIO DE JANEIRO most Brazilian of all things to be good at soccer, seriously good, so good that your national team makes you its captain and you represent the famed yellow jersey all over the world for more than a decade.
Such a career is a dream for millions of young Brazilians and, in most cases, leads to a life of fame, fortune and adulation. Except if you are a woman. “In Brazil the concept of the ideal woman is that of a sexual object,” says Aline Pellegrino, Brazil’s former women’s captain and a World Cup (2007) and Olympic (2004) silver medalist. “Not of a soccer player.”
Brazil’s women’s team plays Australia in the Olympic quarterfinals Friday and has gained attention with its fine displays in the tournament.
However, the men’s team remains the far bigger draw, even after being booed off the field after tying 0-0 in its first two games before destroying Denmark 4-0 Wednesday.
Pellegrino lives a comfortable life in Sao Paulo, away from the spotlight in retirement. Attaining celebrity is the least of the worries for female soccer players in Brazil, she told USA TODAY Sports recently. Gaining even a basic measure of respect is a far bigger issue.
“This is a macho country,” Pellegrino says. “And soccer is seen as a male sport. Whoever plays soccer is a strong man, that is the image, so having a woman play soccer does not match that. They want women in the kitchen, all beautiful and sexy. Not in a soccer jersey kicking a ball around.”
Brazil’s affinity for soccer is unmatched anywhere in the world. While the rules of the modern game were drawn up in England, Brazil can claim to be its spiritual home, a place where the game and life intertwine effortlessly.
The 2014 World Cup, despite Brazil’s crushing 7-1 defeat to Germany in the semifinal, gave the world a glimpse of how the vibrant national personality draws inspiration from the planet’s most popular sport.
Women, however, have been lost somewhere on the periphery of that idyllic scene. Even with the women’s game enjoying more global popularity than ever, Brazil has not caught up. The Brazilian women’s team is one of the favorites for gold in Rio, but the treatment of girls who want to play at the grass-roots level is disturbing, to say the least.
“The problem usually starts at home,” says Carla Santos de Oliveira, a former Brazil under-20 international player. Along with Pellegrino, Oliveira works with the Guerreiras Project, a nonprofit organization set up to help Brazilian girls overcome age-old stereotypes.
“They are told they cannot play soccer at their own home because soccer is not for girls,” Oliveira says. “Or girls can go and play but also they need to come and wash dishes. Meanwhile, boys don’t have to do any house chores, they can simply play soccer all day.
“Outside of the house, kids have to face the rules that the society sets for them. In schools, they often don’t let girls play. During adolescent years, if you want to play soccer, your friends say, ‘ You are like a guy, you are homosexual.’ ”
The troubling perceptions run deep, even into the national federation itself.
“Now the women are getting more beautiful, putting on makeup,” Marco Aurelio Cunha of the CBF, Brazilian soccer’s governing body, told the Toronto Globe and
Mail during last year’s Women’s World Cup. “They go in the field in an elegant manner. Now the shorts are a bit shorter; the hairstyles are more done up. It’s not a woman dressed as a man.”
Cunha’s job title? He’s responsible for progressing the women’s game in Brazil.
There is still a long way to go.