BACKGROUND
In September 2010, Caitlin Fisher (Researcher/Writer/Player) and Adrienne Grunwald (Documentary Photographer) began documenting the lives of forty female football players in Brazil who play professionally for Santos F.C., one of the greatest and most renowned male football clubs of all time. Using football as a lens, the Guerreiras Project explores some of the shifts taking place in Brazil around gender norms, and how female players are navigating new tensions and contradictions in identities. The project delves under the surface and raises questions around athletic femininities, the regulation of bodies, the significance of empowerment, and possibilities for resistance. These themes are then explored in relation to the theme of ‘nation’ and Brazil’s broader role in the global economy. Ultimately, Guerreiras aims to encourage dialogue around the meaning of privilege, justice and change—an understanding that can be applied to countless other realms. These are the guerreiras of Santos F.C., and this is their story.
GUERREIRAS – JUGGLING ROLES & CREATING SPACE
Futebol has long been considered Brazil’s most popular sport, and around the world Brazil is regarded as ‘futebol country’, but these labels have referred solely to the men’s game. Historically the sport has been defined by machismo and regarded as a vehicle through which masculinity is tried and tested. Because of the legacy of men’s futebol in Brazil, female futebol players have continuously struggled to gain acceptance; amidst a climate of cultural disapproval, female players’ femininity and sexual orientation have been regularly called into question. These female players have not only represented a threat to Brazilian masculinity, but have also been perceived as encroaching in a disgraceful manner on one of the nation’s primary sources of pride and collective identity.
Recently a shift has begun to unfold wherein the women’s game is beginning to occupy a much more valued position within Brazilian culture—a shift that appears to be occurring hand-in-hand with Brazil’s emergence in the global economy. Female players are stepping onto the field, carving a space for themselves and enjoying increased media attention, filled stadiums, improved facilities, higher salaries and the likes—and for some female players, their individual struggles have been eased. This movement is arguably loosening the grips of machismo, contributing to the deconstruction of traditional gender roles, and serving as a strong source of empowerment. A traditionally male realm appears to be opening up and creating space for new voices.
However, one must be cautious about deeming this move a definitive step towards gender equality. Not only is there is still a very long way to go for women’s futebol in Brazil, but these shifts also bring with them new contradictions, tensions and ambiguities—potentially representing something other than a step ‘forward’. Although popular support is growing for Brazilian women’s futebol, and female players seldom face the same prejudice and disapproval they once did, these women now appear to be confronted with a new version of cultural constraint in the form of socialised femininity. The game’s improved popular image increasingly depends on the gendered performances of female players who are now expected to wear slim-fit uniforms, grow their hair long, wear make-up on the pitch, and put skirts on after the game. Pressure is being placed on players to uphold this image in order to be considered ‘acceptable’.
In turn, upon closer examination it becomes evident that the version of women’s futebol in Brazil gaining mainstream attention today is not the same version that was heavily stigmatised just ten years ago; although the rules are the same, the image is new. The women’s game today is being reframed in a hyper-feminine, heteronormative light. While many of these female players are moving into new roles and experiencing new forms of empowerment, older gender ideologies seem to be persisting and negating some of the movement’s liberating effects. Where once women’s futebol had the potential to serve as a site for resistance and a vehicle through which conventional notions of femininity and heteronormativity could be challenged, currently it is being stripped of its transformative potential through its alignment with traditional norms.
