Note from BW of Brazil: For those who don’t know, to be a black woman in Brazil is to experience daily assaults on one’s very being. From the psychological/emotional perception of invisibility and stereotyping in the mainstream media, hyper-sexualization and exotification during Carnaval, salary discrimination in the job market to exclusion from concepts of beauty to the outright brutality of assassination, black women are truly treated as the “cheapest meat on the market.” Last year here at BW of Brazil, Ana Flávia Magalhães Pinto examined the complexities of black women participating in a white female dominated feminist movement through the lens of an incident that happened at last year’s Slut Walk in the nation’s capital of Brasília. This year, we bring you the participation of black women in the 2014 Slut Walk (or Marcha das Vadias as it is called in Brazil) in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, as this group organized by the Coletivo Negração made their own demonstration during the event to call attention to the differences in being simultaneously a woman and black. Although the event actually took place at the end of April, the video was only posted a few days ago. And as some who commented on the video in social networks have already remarked, it is indeed “inspiring” and “emotional”. See the write up, video and photos below.
With a progression of two paths, the annual Marcha das Vadias (Slut Walk) brought together hundreds in Porto Alegre to end violence against women
Marcha das Vadias (Slut Walk) of 2014 brought together people of various ages, colors and social classes |
By Débora Fogliatto, Photos by Bernardo Garden Ribeiro
In protest against sexism and violence against women, the Marcha das Vadias brought together hundreds in Porto Alegre. The act, scheduled for 4pm, left from Monumento ao Expedicionário of Parque da Redenção (park) – the starting point – left a few minutes later. Along the way, the march attracted more supporters, to the point of the division of progression paths that happened at the beginning of the act.
Leaving from Redenção, the march proceeded down Avenida João Pessoa, where some of the protesters went to Avenida Venâncio Aires and another part went up Ipiranga. The split came during a meeting of the organization of the event, in which some girls wanted to go to the Delegacia da Mulher (Women’s Police Station) and others opposed.
During the march, a block of black women, organized by Coletivo Negração (Blacktion Collective), made interventions in protest against racism and violence against black women and residents of the city’s periphery. “My mother is not Nossa Senhora (Our Lady), but Iemanjá is. My hero is not Princess Isabel, but it is Zumbi”, said one of them through bullhorn in the middle of a circle of about fifteen other women, who chanted “Cláudia Ferreira resiste (resists)”, referring to the poor black woman who was killed when after being shot and being dragged on the street attached to back of a Military Police van in Rio de Janeiro.
Black women make intervention denouncing violence
As in previous years, the phrases of protest were not only on the posters but also on the bodies of the participants. Despite being colder on that Sunday than in the march of 2013, with temperatures of about 20 degrees (celsius, 68 fahrenheit), the girls were topless, with or without bras in protest against sexual abuse and sexism. “Isso não é um convite (This is not an invitation)”, “respeita as mina (respects the girls)”, “meu corpo é luta (my body is a struggle)”, “vadia livre (free slut)” were some of the things written on breasts, back, legs and stomachs of protesters.
On posters, were more elaborate phrases like “Isso não é sobre sexo, é sobre violência (This is not about sex, it’s about violence),” “Sou negra, sou menina, sou mulher, sou livre (I am black, I am a girl, I am a woman, I am free)”, “Meu corpo, minhas regras (My body, my rules)” “Tirem seus rosários de nossos ovários (Take your rosaries off of our ovaries),” among many others. In front of the crowd, there was a banner demonstrating that there is still much to protest: “92 mulheres mortas pelo machismo em 2013 (92 women killed by male chauvinism in 2013)”, that number was also stamped on a purple casket, carried by four men.
Photo: “The black woman suffers much more than the white woman and prejudice grows when they are black women and lesbians. A carne negra é a mais barata do Mercado (the black/dark meat is the cheapest on the market), but we came here to show our faces to confront racism besides machismo.” (photo and comment courtesy of Retratos de Porto Alegre)
Most of the group proceeded to the Women’s Police Station, where a rally in protest against violence was held. Moreover, the demonstrators read an open letter with demands, which was distributed before the act. The items included better service conditions at the station, increased vacancies in shelters for women victims of violence and violence prevention programs. Many girls laid in the street, Avenida Ipiranga – which was blocked for several minutes – to demonstrate the violence that victimizes women. No police intervention in either of the two paths was recorded.
The march that went to Largo Zumbi (Zumbi Square)
“We decided to split due to a political issue, we are abolitionists besides being feminists. We know that the ones who go to jail are black men, from the periphery (city outskirts),” said Ciça Richter, one of the organizers who chose not to go to the police station. “We decided not to go there because the police never solved women’s problems. Police and state don’t represent us,” she concluded.
The part that split and proceeded down by Venâncio walked down by Cidade Baixa, marching with graffiti on the pavement marking the places where cases of sexism, racism and homophobia have been recorded. The first was the Caribe bar on João Pessoa, where a few weeks ago the Selva party, promoted by the collective Seven/Nine, in which some girls participated in an escracho (escrache) in front of the site and were truculently reprimanded by the owner of the bar and security. Next it was the Opinião bar, on José do Patrocínio street, where there were denouncements of sexual harassment and transphobia, and a church on Lima e Silva street.
The site that was most heavily criticized was the Pinguim bar where cases of homophobia were already registered. Among the cries of “Pinguim homofóbico (homophobic Pinguim)”, protesters booed the site, which had patrons at around 5:30pm, and some girls kissed, being applauded by the group. Some of the participants took the carpet entrance of the bar, which was then recovered by an employee of the bar, only to be taken back by the girls. The carpet was then burned, along with some bras on Avenida Loureiro da Silva to the sounds of applause.
After a “dispute” with an official, the mat of the Pinguim bar was burned
During this procession, the participants chanted cries of homophobia and transphobia, also alluding to another rift between the various feminisms. “The gay, bi, trava (transsexual) and the sapatão (dyke), everything so organized to make a revolution” was one of the songs heard, just as “A nossa luta é todo dia, contra o machismo, racismo e a homofobia (Our struggle is every day, against sexism, racism and homophobia.).” The march was completed in at largo Zumbi dos Palmares, where some organizers explained the reason for the division and Putinhas Aborteiras (“little slut aborters”) collective put on a musical performance.
Source: Sul 21, Retratos de Porto Alegre
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