Tentative Transgressions: Homosexuality, AIDS, and the Theater in Brazil

Notes

Chapter 1. Transgression, Homosexuality, and the Theater in Brazil 1. Cf. the work done by superstar Ronaldinho (Ronaldo Luiz Nazário de Lima) as a special representative for the World AIDS Campaign “Young People: Focus for Change.” The campaign aims to raise awareness about the effect of AIDS on young people, and how they can become active participants in the response to the epidemic. 2. For evidence that soccer is hardly immune to transgression, see Luiz Henrique de Toledo, “Transgressão e violência entre torcedores de futebol,” Revista USP 22 (June–August 1994): 93–101. 3. In a twist to the intensely publicized salvos in the debate between macho soccer players and gay leaders, more media-savvy soccer stars have begun to appear in the nude in gay magazines, for example, Vampeta and Dinei in G Magazine 16 (January 1999) and 17 (February 1999), respectively. This trend is in fact just another facet of the elaborate ritual of rejection and seduction that characterizes the interest in contrary registers discussed by Peter Stallybrass and Allon White (1986) in The Politics and Poetics of Transgression (see below). In sports such as volleyball, where machismo is less rife, it is easier for a wellknown athlete like Lilico to come out. Still, lingering doubts surround his exclusion from the national team following his coming-out interview (“Sou gay e jogo como um homem,” Veja, 31 March 1999: 70–72). 4. Sarcastically dubbed “Copacabana Coppertone Beach” (The Brasilians, March 1999: 7E), the first women’s soccer competition in Brazil was held in 1981. It was not until women’s soccer became an Olympic event in 1988 and a women’s World Cup was initiated in 1991 that Brazil began to pay more serious attention to that modality of the sport. After the initial scramble to put together a national women’s 179 Notes soccer team, there has been an effort to foster the practice of soccer among young women. Mild as they initially were, those efforts have begun to pay off: Brazil had respectable showings in the 1991, 1995, and 1999 Women’s World Cups as well as in the 1996 Olympics, where they advanced to the semifinals, losing to China in a tight game. The emphasis, however, is on international tournaments, with local and regional competitions remaining largely ignored by the public and the media, and very visible political figures such as Eurico Miranda, a congressman from the state of Rio de Janeiro and a director of the Vasco da Gama soccer club, boldly stating opposition to the participation of women (and homosexuals) in soccer (Veja, 25 November 1998: 42). A more recent example of intolerance of homosexuals playing soccer is the flap over national team coach Luiz Felipe Scolari’s homophobic comments to the Mexican newspaper Crónica Hoy, as reported in Correio do Povo (Porto Alegre), 25 July 2001. For a nation so fascinated with soccer, the silent treatment the Brazilian media has accorded the women’s national soccer team is baffling. Reporting from Rio de Janeiro on the day of Brazil’s semifinals game with the United States for the 1999 World Cup (the United States won, 2–0), New York Times correspondent Larry Rohter (4 July 1999, sports section) submitted this account: “Soccer may be the king of sports here, but only the men’s version of the game seems to wear the crown. Not one of this year’s matches of the Brazilian national women’s team has been televised live, sponsors have shied away from any association with the team, and hard-core fans who can recite the entire roster of the 1950 men’s World Cup squad are hard-pressed to name even one of the current World Cup women.” 5. See, for example, “Moustache x Panterinhas,” Veja, 31 March 1999: 72. 6. Many metaphors and similes used in soccer are borrowed from warfare and military operations. Other images draw on eating and sex. 7. Two openly gay soccer referees, Valter Senra and Jorge Emiliano dos Santos, became very visible in the 1980s but could only be dealt with as “women” or womanized (i.e., weakened), as the nicknames by which they were known in the soccer world—Bianca and Margarida, respectively—attest. Jorge Emiliano died of AIDS in January, 1995. See Sui Generis 35 (1998): 33; and for Emiliano’s obituary, Veja, 1 February 1995: 98. For an intelligent discussion of the association between soccer and homosexuality , see Bech...