Abstract
In recent years, Brazilian football has been fragmented into multiple expressions of itself, which has led to a wide spectrum of distinct ways of playing it and to a greater understanding of its cultural meaning. This article arises from ethnographic research into LGBTIQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer) identity groups claiming space for themselves and recognition of their football practices. These are plural bodies that showcase the ineffectiveness of the standardization and applicability of the sex category on the sports field when evoking their gender identities or sexual orientations. By playing “society football,” these players have politicized the sports field through practices that create “multiple footballs” that express intersecting aspects of class, generation, ethnicity, ability, and gender in their performance as they deconstruct the standards of the game itself. Moreover, by way of their sexual and gender identities, they claim the practice of football as a form of empowerment through football and within it. This article has a dual purpose, which is, on the one hand, to point out the symbolic disputes regarding gender issues within Brazilian football and then to reflect on the fact that such fights for a space for dialogue within the sport represent not only a pulverization of different dimensions and expressions of football (the multiple “footballs”), but also a transformation of the phenomenon itself.
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Notes
- 1.
The title of article 54, reads: “Women shall not be allowed to practice sports incompatible with the conditions of their nature, and for this purpose, the National Sports Council shall issue the necessary instructions to the sports entities of the country” (Decreto-Lei No. 3,199 de 14 de abril de 1941, our translation).
- 2.
I will follow the argument of important Brazilian researchers on the subject and address this expression as “women's football” instead of “female football.” Kessler (2015) and Pisani (2016), in different ways, but with similar explanations, understand that the nomenclature “female football” covers up diversity by imposing a standardization of body and gender linked to the matrix of hegemonic, male, macho and heteronormative football. Camargo and Kessler (2017) also emphasize that the adoption of this expression is because there are multiple expressions of femininities (and masculinities) in the bodies of women who practice the sport.
- 3.
Historian Franzini (2005) uncovers occasional events prior to this historical period but points out that they were occasional and ephemeral.
- 4.
The nomenclature bio and trans (or techno) appear as technically produced gender artifices for Preciado (2008). On the one hand, “bio-men” and “bio-women” are those who identify with the sex they were assigned at birth, while “trans-men” and “trans-women” (or techno-men/techno-women) are those who contest this designation and have tried to change it with the help of external procedures (technical, prosthetic, performative, and/or legal). Instead of “bio,” some theorists use the term “cis” (cisgender).
- 5.
Muñoz (1999) worked on the concept of gender disidentification of racialized queer bodies (queers of color). In his reading, disidentifications is a new perspective of the performance of activism and the survival of (sexual) minorities, which operates within, together, outside, and against dominant ideologies.
- 6.
I have summarized Judith Butler's arguments herein and offered just two references. However, her vast body of gender theory and nuances are beyond the scope of this chapter. Complementary views can also be found in a collection about the athletic body (Butler, 1998) and the works of Preciado (2008; 2014).
- 7.
I do not use “gay” as an adjective of men or football because I want to escape the marketing identification that such a category carries. “Men relate affectively-sexually with other men” does not exclude any other designation they can assign to themselves. However, I avoid using “homosexuals” as an identity category, because I think that the contextual and situational dynamics of the processes that involve such identifications of these subjects is what matters. This is not new in the Social Sciences and has already been worked on previously. Among other works, see those of Braz (2007; 2012), Facchini (2008) and França (2012).
- 8.
Conversation recorded in a field diary: “Occupy Pacaembu,” August 26, 2017.
- 9.
As one of the best organized, the group maintains a Web site <https://www.unicornsbrazil.com> with a range of options for Internet users to get to know them, including merchandising on sale in a virtual store.
- 10.
This is my recent anthropologic and ethnographic research, as a participant observer (Durham 2004), that is part of my second PhD in progress at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar).
- 11.
This opens up many avenues for speculation of less than a scientific nature. This lies beyond the scope of this chapter, however. For an initial look at the issue, I suggest Pronger (1990).
- 12.
Conversation recorded in a field diary: 3rd LiGay Champions, November 1, 2019.
- 13.
- 14.
Just as an example, in the 3rd. Champions LiGay the following clubs were present: from São Paulo, “Futeboys Futebol Clube” and “Unicorns Brazil” (host teams), “Afronte F.C.”, “Bulls Football SP” and “Diversus F.C.”; from Rio de Janeiro “Beescats”, “Alligaytors” and “Karyocas”; from Belo Horizonte (MG) the “Bharbixas F.C.” and “ManoTauros F.C.”; from Brasília (DF), the “Bravus”; from Goiânia (GO), the “Barbies F.C.”; from Curitiba (PR), the “Capivaras Esporte Clube”; from Porto Alegre (RS), the “Magia Sport Club” and “Pampacats”; and from Florianópolis (SC), the “Sereyos Sport Club”.
- 15.
- 16.
Interview with Bernardo Gonzales, Free Skype Recorder (2019, February 16, our translation).
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de Camargo, W.X. (2021). Gender Expressions and the Multiple Practices of Football in Brazil. In: Giglio, S.S., Proni, M.W. (eds) Football and Social Sciences in Brazil. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84686-2_25
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