{"id":1399,"date":"2018-05-09T16:42:06","date_gmt":"2018-05-09T15:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/word-world\/girls-beyond-ipanema-deborah-vieira\/"},"modified":"2021-03-02T19:48:32","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T19:48:32","slug":"girls-beyond-ipanema-deborah-vieira","status":"publish","type":"word_world","link":"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/journal\/girls-beyond-ipanema-deborah-vieira\/","title":{"rendered":"Girls beyond Ipanema"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Translated from the Portuguese<\/a> by Melanie Joy H\u00e4nni<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\u2018Garota de Ipanema<\/a>\u2019 (\u2018The girl from Ipanema\u2019) is one of the most played songs in the world. It represents the Brazilian stereotype: beaches, sun, and bikinis. What most people do not know is that the girl from Ipanema, Hel\u00f4 Pinheiro, the muse of the song, was only sixteen or seventeen years old when Tom Jobim and Vin\u00edcius de Moraes wrote the song at the ages of thirty-five and forty-nine, respectively. In an interview with the Portuguese website S\u00e1bado<\/em><\/a>[1], Hel\u00f4 Pinheiro says she only knew them \u201cas a couple of men who were playful every time I walked by, coming back from school, frequently in my uniform\u201d. Hel\u00f4 doesn\u2019t seem to have presented this as something negative, but for women who have suffered the horrors of harassment, usually at an earlier age than for Hel\u00f4, this song can take on a new meaning. A campaign promoted in Brazil by Think Olga in 2015<\/a> gathered accounts of women\u2019s first experiences of harassment shared in 82,000 tweets. Once analysed, the average age of first harassment was 9.7 years old, and one of the most frequent words in the accounts was \u2018school\u2019.[2]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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In Brazil, sexual harassment follows women from childhood into adulthood, and this includes the time they spend at university. A survey from Instituto Avon <\/em>and Data Popular<\/em> shows that 49 percent of women in a Brazilian university setting have suffered from intellectual disqualification due to gender bias, 67 percent claim they were subject to violence at university or related environments, 56 percent of female students have suffered harassment at university, 36 percent decided not to take part in academic activities due to fear of harassment or violence, 25 percent of female university students were insulted or attacked for rejecting men\u2019s advances within the university setting or in academic parties, and lastly, 63 percent did not react to these acts of harassment or violence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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We don\u2019t react because we feel insecure. The vast majority of universities try to cover up such cases. The chances of the accused being granted impunity are directly correlated to the wealth of the aggressor or the prestige of the university or course. One of the most iconic cases in Brazil happened in 2014 when a committee was established to investigate rape reports in the universities in S\u00e3o Paulo. Of the ten formal reports, six were related to the University of S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s (USP) Medical School, and of the students involved, only one was suspended from academic activities\u200a\u2014\u200aand not imprisoned, despite being accused of rape, which is a crime according to the Brazilian penal code. The suspension lasted a year, ending in September 2016. The alleged perpetrator has since graduated with a medical degree, and in April 2017 he obtained a license to practice medicine granted by the Regional Medical Licensing Council of the State of Pernambuco.<\/a>[3]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Women are used to seeing that when they report a crime, they are the ones who are considered crazy or evil women who want to end the lives and careers of their aggressors. The woman is the real culprit because she was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, wearing the wrong outfit. Everything is wrong, except for the attacker. A poll by Data Folha<\/em><\/a> found that a third of Brazilians blame the woman for being raped.[4] Jornal GGM<\/em> published<\/a> an article reporting that one of the female students who reported a rape connected to USP\u2019s Medical School was being bullied and threatened over social media: \u201cUSP\u2019s Medical School scum should be eradicated from humanity\u2026 trash\u2026 these dirty prostitutes should disappear and go study something more relatable to their mentality and essence\u201d.[5] There are 3.5 times more rape reports than arrests. It is common for public bodies and universities to not act on these reports since they fear blemishes to their reputation, especially in the case of private universities. There is also concern that the police will not take action or that doing something about it may even be more detrimental to the victim.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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On the other hand, the number of feminist collectives and women\u2019s support groups has grown, both in and out of Brazilian universities. An example is the Coletivo Feminista Geni<\/em> (Geni Feminist Collective) which is responsible for bringing attention to the rape cases involving USP\u2019s Medical School. Many of these collectives are being mapped by project MAMU (Mapa de Coletivos de Mulheres<\/em><\/a>, or the Women\u2019s Collectives Map) and, despite not having institutional power, they seek to denounce and support women regarding this issue.[6] A survey by Jornal do Campus da USP<\/em><\/a> (USP\u2019s Campus Newspaper) found that of the seventy-seven female university students interviewed, forty said they wouldn\u2019t know who to turn to in case of harassment or assault, and twelve said they would take the case to feminist collectives or share it with their friends.[7]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Being a Christian in times of violence against women in universities<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n
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The Christian response to violence against women in and out of universities is frequently discredited. Many evangelical Christians who defend women\u2019s rights in Brazil are met with resistance from non-Christians because of a negative view of evangelical Christians. Evangelical Christians are stereotyped as uneducated people whose leaders and pastors finance corrupt politicians and extort believers by promising blessings in exchange for money. To a wider audience and often in the university environment, the mention of evangelical churches is associated with the prosecution of homosexuals and Afro-Brazilian religions, money laundering, proselytizing, and corrupt political projects which many times are detrimental to women. The evangelical church isn\u2019t known as a church that shows the love of Christ with strength and candour or a church which defends and fights for the oppressed, as exemplified by pastor Martin Luther King, Jr., and the defence of civil rights for African Americans in the United States.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Sadly, people are not completely wrong to think this way. In fact, this has generally been where the Brazilian evangelical church has stood. When mentioning the need to act with regards to violence against women it is not uncommon to hear things such as these:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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