The Brazil Files: Colossal Ewwww: Playing Brazil an Insult to…Everyone?
by Special Correspondent Wendi Muse
I hate to even give this guy web time, but here goes…
While doing some research on beauty industry revenue and plastic surgery in Brazil, I stumbled upon a little gem called Playing Brazil. At this point, I started holding back the bile coming up in my throat. It was hard, so I decided to channel my disgust in writing this piece, which basically wrote itself, meaning I just threw up in my mouth a little instead of puking up the contents of my entire stomach.
Check out the site introduction:
This website is a comprehensive guide to picking up brazilian women, for you the tourist. I’ve spent a long time figuring this out, so if you follow this advice you are seriously going to increase your chances of getting with a beautiful brazilian girl! There is also an easy to use phonetic Portuguese section, which is key for pick up. You will only need a few!
Lovely. It’s not like Brazilian women don’t already have a hard time. Now they have to worry about fighting off more nasty tourists looking to have a good time and charm them with their bad Portuguese.
The author also reminds us that, just in case we didn’t learn this from the media, all mixed girls are HAWT!:
Forget Ronaldinho or Pele, Brazil’s best export is their women. brazilian girls are the descendents of generations of racial mixing. Up until the 19th century, Brazil was mainly composed of three different people; the Portuguese, Africans and the indigenous inhabitants. In the 20th century the country received a flood of many millions of migrants from Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Poland and Japan. This recent migration led to Brazil being recognized to have received the second largest number of immigrants in the Western Hemisphere after the United States. So this blend of precarious races mixed into this melting pot has produced an exotic beauty that can be described as a masterpiece, a gift from god which is quite simply unlike any other type of woman in the world.
Major ew.
But wait. Just like in one of those terrible 4 am info-mercials, there’s more. Sooo much more!
Here are some of the author’s tips on picking up women:
Brazil is not like Thailand, Australia or Ibiza in terms of sheer number of tourists. Brazil still struggles to fulfil its potential in the tourism industry. It still wrongly suffers from an identity crisis. This is great for you as its still absolutely an untapped Mecca. The ratio of local to tourist is still exceedingly high so no matter where you go in Brazil or when you go. You are a “luxurious commodity” to the girls and they will view you as exotic. USE THIS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE. Remember you are a minority as a tourist in Brazil and will be very different to the everyday sleazy Brazilian guys in the club or bar.
See? Brazil is vulnerable. Go exploit that, and tap some youknowwhat in the process!
Generally speaking within 2 seconds of entering a club or bar the whole place will know your foreigners. Your pale skin and different mannerisms will be enough to alert them a mile off that you are not local (which is good!), not to even mention the different language you’ll be speaking.
Man, being white and male and foreign in Brazil is AWESOME! I wish I had this magic power over Brazilians, too!
He goes on to warn his readers not to get sloppy drunk because it’s not very common in Brazil (This part is true. Most Brazilians, while clubbing, stick to beer or lighter alcoholic drinks because, I don’t know, maybe they want to actually have fun instead of spending the night vomiting. What a strange concept!) He goes on to talk about how feminism in Brazil makes it a straight, white, male tourist’s playground:
Now if you’re not drunk you can give some serious thought to getting your Brazilian girl. Now there are two ways in which this can happen. The first is; she approaches you.
Yes, you heard right!!! She approaches you. Brazilian women and culture are very sexually liberated, and it’s not uncommon for a girl to approach you and with very few words exchanged want to then kiss you. They are very forward.So if she is hanging around expectantly kiss her! Even if you’ve been speaking to her for less than a minute. Seriously, DO IT! It’s what she’ll be wanting, you’ll be able to see it in her eyes. So what are you waiting for?
This part is a bit true as well, though not in the way he says it. In Brazil, it’s common for people at parties or in clubs to “ficar.” The verb “ficar” technically means to stay, to remain, or to be located in a particular place, but it also means “hook up.” Yes, “o ficar” is the Brazilian Portuguese equivalent of that vague post-peck on the cheek, pre-sex place that some older Americans and even the New York Times (is it just me, or is it not so awesome that the author’s last name is Blow?!?!) waste their lives trying to figure out. But I will tell you one thing, in Brazil, it’s not that deep.
“O Ficar” is simply making out with someone as if the world might end tomorrow, but after that, there is no guarantee that anything is going to actually happen. In the States, if someone were to make out with me like that, the expectation on both ends would be to go beyond just a kiss, but in Brazil, kissing people, even perfect strangers, is the norm (in social/pick-up friendly environments like clubs). And when I say this, I don’t mean in it an insulting, judgmental way. It’s just a cultural difference that many foreign visitors have trouble adjusting to and/or don’t understand. The author of Playing Brazil is a perfect example. Sure, “o ficar” can lead to other things, but for some, it’s just a way to ease the tension of meeting someone for the first time. Kiss first, chat and drink (and sometimes even the person’s name) come later. That doesn’t mean, however, that it’s an invitation for easy sex.
Oh and last but not least, we must talk about the power of language:
So look to verbally seduce them. When you deliver your line in Portuguese i.e. “Oi, tudo bem?” Make sure you have a big smile on your face as it will portray that you’re a fun confident type of guy. . . By this point one of either two things will happen. Either she will speak some English in which case she will immediately start chatting to you in English as they are so keen to practice their English. If this happens then great you’re in. You will see how different Brazilian girls are compared to other nationalities; their enthusiasm is quite literally contagious!
So careful, guys. DO NOT learn Portuguese because you actually care about Brazilian culture or want to interact with people as humans. Learn just enough Portuguese to say hello, because that’s all you will need for a night of panty-dropping excitement. Ok, full on upchuck. This is insulting to women, obviously. He insults Brazilian women by making them out to be “easy” (and not in the good, hey she is empowered and has agency and understands the role of sex in human relationships kind of way, but in the these women are like porn personified, naive, stupid, and easy to objectify kind of way), but he also manages to insult women of other countries by making this gross comparison between “us” and “them.” He manages to insult Brazilian men several times on the site (they’re stupid, ugly, sleazy). And all in all, he is a big insult to white men, tourists, and a whole slew of other people.
If I were to revise his site, I’d simply advise his readers that if they really want girls, maybe going to a foreign country they know nothing about in hopes of hooking up with the population of whom they might have an incredibly stereotypical view might not be the best way to do it. In Getting a Girl 101, I am not quite sure if being an ignorant jerk is part of the lesson. Man, gotta love the democratization of the internet.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Msday wrote:
I understand your contempt, for this website. However, after living in Europe for a while, the sex industry has caused to further stereotypes of Brazilian women, especially black Brazilian woman. So if you happen to be a light skinned black woman, walking on the streets of Italy, expect someone to assume, that you are a prostitute. It’s sad, but true and the women do nothing more than purvey those stereotypes by validating them.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 10:18 am ¶
Wendi Muse wrote:
haha,msday, this is exactly what happened to me in madrid, which i why i don’t plan to go back
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 10:21 am ¶
Zinnia wrote:
This is such a great article. I’m a Latina and it is just disgusting to learn that this type of male still exists.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 10:22 am ¶
distance88 wrote:
Ugh. The limits of the English language (or any language, for that matter) prohibit me from expressing just how repulsive this stuff is.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 10:46 am ¶
N wrote:
All around the world its the same song. Everywhere I go men of whatever race go insane because of the sterotypes about the mulata rumbera, the high yella hottie, the cafe au lait creole etc etc..
Its one thing to hear the whispers and know about the attitudes, another to see it written and feel like you’re being sold.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 11:17 am ¶
Logan wrote:
You know, I read everything here, and it just screams out at the behavior of many of the other guys who I work with in China, and their views on the women here. Just…. yeah, there’s a reason I’m kinda a loner around here.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 11:24 am ¶
Shelby wrote:
@ Wendi Muse: COSIGN on the Madrid experience. Good to know I wasn’t just being paranoid & over-sensitive…
And this post kinda makes me hate the world more than I already do. Gross.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 11:33 am ¶
N wrote:
I always assumed that people at the clubs I go to drink sparingly is because we can’t dance while drunk, and the dances require one to do definite prescribed steps and moves AND to be in sync with your partner.
Clubbing isn’t for getting drunk and getting laid.
My 2 cents.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 11:44 am ¶
Marcus Kwame wrote:
Absolutely disgusting. The fact that the “plaing Brazil site” exists, calls to mind a Saul Williams quote, “some freedom of speech makes me nervous.”
The only thing worse than that site is the larger prevailing attitudes of privilege, pursuit of that which is viewed as “exotic,” and objectification behind it.
You’re right. He pretty much insults everyone.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 12:01 pm ¶
mk wrote:
@logan, I was just going to say the attitude here reminds me of some foreign (mostly white) men I came into contact with when I lived in Japan (especially reminds me of opinions/attitudes people expressed on line in discussion forums and so on) regarding Japanese women. It’s not the same thing, but it would be interesting to read a comparison of the two…especially with regards to how they play out online.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 1:31 pm ¶
vcious wrote:
Great article, as always. I’ve loved all of your posts on Brazil; great insights into ethnicity and race and how much variation there is to such matters in different cultures.
Can’t even bring myself to comment on this website much, just sad to say I’ve seen dudes with similar obsessions on Asian women.. Ugh.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 2:09 pm ¶
Tomicat wrote:
As a Brazilian person, I am outraged but sadly not surprised. Back in high-school some friends made a mini documentary profiling tourists that came to Rio, and it was shocking to see how many men only came “for the girls”.
Also, I’ve never been out dancing without a foreign men approaching a friend or myself and afterwards being surprised that 1. we could speak “very good” english 2. we were educated and 3. after a chat, we still didn’t want to kiss them.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 2:31 pm ¶
Aishtamid wrote:
When I was living in China, there was a blog written by a white English teacher that was so similar to this blog that it’s eerie. It was full of his sexual escapades, cheesy Chinese pickup lines and general stereotypes about “easy, submissive” Chinese women. Most of the women he slept with were his students. This of course caused one hell of an outcry when the word got out in China, and the blog was shut down. Unfortunately, I don’t recall the name of the blog.
Exploitative (exploitive? I fail with words) sex tourism based on stereotypes is an epic humanity fail.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 2:41 pm ¶
Aishtamid wrote:
@Logan – It depends on the people you hang around with. This kind of attitude got to me too, but there is a Western crowd at least in Beijing that was not into dehumanization.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 2:51 pm ¶
Msday wrote:
LOL Wendi Muse, it’s happened to me, more than a few times, while living here in Italy. I barely go out of the house! I have gone from being happy, world traveler, to angry and hyper aware.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 3:00 pm ¶
Royce wrote:
The sad thing is I’m not surprised by this website. But then again at my school there was huge controversy over a mini-course (taught by a student) entitled “Language of Ladies” which was about how to pick up women when abroad. You can guess what the first class, entitled “Orienting Yourself to The Orient” was like.
Fortunately the class was cancelled, but there was a long back and forth of folks arguing against it and people arguing for it, including the guy who made the class and claimed it was just a safe space for (white) men. (http://www.miscellanynews.com/mini-course-was-intended-to-teach-multiculturalism-1.1649262)
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 3:00 pm ¶
atlasien wrote:
@mk: White guy advice for picking up Japanese women is totally the opposite of advice for picking up Brazilian women. Yet, somehow, it’s also exactly the same!
Excerpt from “How to Seduce a Japanese Woman?
I’d also hyperlink “Sammy Sanders – the Seduction Samurai” for lots more samples… but I don’t want to give him any more business by accident.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 3:11 pm ¶
Marcy Webb wrote:
Can we all get together and shut down the “Playing Brazil” site?
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 3:16 pm ¶
Lacey wrote:
@Msday, Wendi, Shelbi: did you have a similar experience in other cities in Spain? I visited Barcelona a couple years ago but don’t recall anything like that happening to me. It could be because I am extremely oblivious, spanish not being too great and am dark-skinned. And now I’m a little concerned as an Italian guy I know has started showing interest in me…
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 4:09 pm ¶
GueraLola wrote:
YES! OH YES! I wasn’t long time ago were I saw this youths “clip teaching men how to pick up women in spainsh lucky most of the comment was on how pathetic the guys were if they used that program, how bad the spainsh was and how racist it was. hehehe hoped that cheered you up guys if do use those language “manuals” the more likely the women will see what D— bags they really are. By the way go to here if you want any tips on getting any ladies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngRq82c8Baw
P..S I highly doubt the language on those pick up site are grammatically correct.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 4:17 pm ¶
Kaonashi wrote:
All around the world its the same song. Everywhere I go men of whatever race go insane because of the sterotypes about the mulata rumbera, the high yella hottie, the cafe au lait creole etc etc..
Its one thing to hear the whispers and know about the attitudes, another to see it written and feel like you’re being sold.
Holy crap, this times a….oh god. I don’t think they make a number that high!
…
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 4:33 pm ¶
GueraLola wrote:
ooops that Oh yes was a@ Marcy Webb
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 4:39 pm ¶
Lxy wrote:
Those blurbs from Playing Brazil are really disgusting.
And as people above had said, they reflect a similar predatory attitude that many White males/sex tourists have towards Asia.
This kind of thing is a global plague.
“Fortunately the class was cancelled, but there was a long back and forth of folks arguing against it and people arguing for it, including the guy who made the class and claimed it was just a safe space for (white) men. (http://www.miscellanynews.com/mini-course-was-intended-to-teach-multiculturalism-1.1649262)“
That guy has essentially approriated the language of anti-racism and multiculturalism (such as ideas like “safe space”) in order to promote the very opposite political agenda.
It’s Orwellian in its manipulativeness.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 4:58 pm ¶
Marcy Webb wrote:
The fact that this…err…individual…I can’t even bring myself to say man….repeatedly uses “girl”, which speaks volumes.
I can’t say which makes me sicker: The Joe Jackson CCN red carpet interview on the night of the BET Awards, or this.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 6:11 pm ¶
Minotaar wrote:
@Aishtamid: I believe you are referring to chinabounder. Ugh.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 6:12 pm ¶
InJM wrote:
@13
I’ve heard of that. I read an article about it from Slashdot about how the human search engine (or was that flesh search engine?) found out that someone who had posted under the name of a female college student that white guys were better than Chinese guys was actually a guy at that college. The article opened up with a few words on that blog.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 7:35 pm ¶
Afro-chan wrote:
@ MK #10 Here here. What is up with this North American male attitude of entitlement over women in other countries? Yes, the same ish happens in Japan. Some people are so desperate to colonize it is truly sickening.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 7:36 pm ¶
Wendi Muse wrote:
mind you, this guy is a brit and the kicker? he’s half peruvian
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 7:51 pm ¶
n wrote:
@Kaonoshi
What? If you mean I have said this before, I have. I will continue to say so. Unwanted attention due solely to your gender phenotype is oppresive and in the community where I live it is quite prevalent.
People on the other side think its flattering or not worthy of attention. I take the opportunity when I can to say- IT HURTS. It hurts.
I have a 13 year old who is beginning to deal with it now and I’d give anything to have spared her this. I can’t. I can, however, speak out and make people aware that it really really hurts.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 7:53 pm ¶
Jen wrote:
Saturday night, Jakarta bar: “Yeah, these girls are so easy, they never give you any backchat, you’ve just got to play them right…”
Sunday afternoon, Jakarta bar: “Damn bitch stole my wallet and my phone!”
My sympathies were pretty much always with the bar girl who’d nicked off with his cash. Shockingly, it turns out that Indonesian women aren’t just compliant whores! Who woulda thunk it.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 9:47 pm ¶
pilot wrote:
I once joked with my friend that sometimes it seems the entire history of travel (conquest, colonization, tourism, etc) was built by privilaged men who wanted to have sex with ‘native’ women. Seeing sites, books, and lectures like this crop up makes me so sad because it seems like my joke wasn’t too far off. It gives such a bad name to those who travel to actually experience and understand other cultures and languages.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 10:18 pm ¶
Michelle wrote:
@Msday: Im mullato and moving to n Italy in the next couple weeks. Your comment was a bit disheartening. The first guy who assumes Im a prostitute is going to get a nice hard slap accross the face!
Posted 03 Jul 2009 at 3:01 am ¶
Adrianna wrote:
I feel sick . douchebags are everywhere. I get the whole exotic Creole girl. It’s everywhere in the world. It’s disgusting .Is it too much to ask to be seen as human being.
Posted 03 Jul 2009 at 3:41 am ¶
Kaonashi wrote:
@ N:
Uh, I really hope that you didn’t take offense that I was in complete agreement with what you said!
The fact that people generally think you’re overreacting if you talk about it (or even worse, think you “deserve” that sort of treatment) makes me very angry.
Posted 03 Jul 2009 at 7:22 am ¶
Mendez Berry wrote:
Wendi,
Have you seen Jelani Cobb’s powerful 2006 Essence piece “Blame it on Rio” about sex tourism (by African-American men) in Brazil? It’s in his book “The Devil and Dave Chappelle” (probably on Nexis too, if you have access).
EMB
Posted 03 Jul 2009 at 1:52 pm ¶
Wendi Muse wrote:
yes, i’ve actually spoken to him via email before as well to compliment him on his work. we were considering cover the article here in relation to another popular word about woc and sex, but it’s still in the pipeline, mainly because blame it on rio, the piece, seems to have disappeared from the internet.
Posted 03 Jul 2009 at 2:07 pm ¶
Mendez Berry wrote:
Cool– the piece is definitely in that book, which is great. When you said that I realized that most of my favorite writing is not available online anywhere (esp. Vibe, The Source, etc…) Different world!
Posted 03 Jul 2009 at 4:32 pm ¶
Msday wrote:
Michelle wrote:
“@Msday: Im mullato and moving to n Italy in the next couple weeks. Your comment was a bit disheartening. The first guy who assumes Im a prostitute is going to get a nice hard slap accross the face!”
Michelle,
You”ll be fine. Just be careful, try not to be alone, if you can help it and don’t be so quick to trust people. Act as if you are living in New York and keep the carabinieri on speed dial…..lol, just kidding. You’ll do fine.
Posted 03 Jul 2009 at 6:43 pm ¶
Paz wrote:
Ugh, this makes me sick. Im sure Playing Brazil is only one site out of many, unfortunately.
I stumbled upon a website where you can find a nice sexy yet submissive Colombian girl to make your wife…not exactly the same thing since I guess these girls are compliant, but still…gross.
Nice touch with the image, BTW.
Posted 04 Jul 2009 at 3:37 am ¶
Sadface wrote:
@pilot
I once joked with my friend that sometimes it seems the entire history of travel (conquest, colonization, tourism, etc) was built by privilaged men who wanted to have sex with ‘native’ women.
After reading Vespucci’s Mundus Novus recently, I think you have a point. My impression was that he spent more time than necessary describing the native women’s sexual behaviour and pointing out their willingness to sleep with Europeans.
Posted 04 Jul 2009 at 5:35 am ¶
Wendi Muse wrote:
haha thanks, paz
Posted 04 Jul 2009 at 11:11 am ¶
ashlynn wrote:
This is disgusting. In general, the need for men to sexualize women in such a way really sickens me. Once a certain culture is seen as exotic, suddenly history, tradition, and language goes out the window if it can’t be used in some sleazy way to pick up women.
On another note, what I find so crazy about this is that many lesbian women who take on more aesthetically male attributes also tend to take on misogynist mindsets as well. For example, last night I was walking home with my best friend, who has very long hair and plenty of curves to go ’round. A group of girls spotted her and one said to another, “yooo, she’s mad thick, that bitch is all you!”, prompting the other girl to grab my friend’s arm and rattle off a list of “exotic” nationalies that she may be a part of in some misguided attempt to pick her up. I’d love to see a post expounding on this.
Posted 04 Jul 2009 at 10:18 pm ¶
Wendi Muse wrote:
ashlynn,
in response to your comment, i want to caution you not to generalize. as someone who considers herself a part of the lgbt community, and someone who is not too keen on generalizations of any group, including the lesbian community.
so even though this is derailing, i think you make an interesting point that is worth addressing, though it is beyond the racialicious scope (as we mainly focus on the intersections of race and other factors (i.e. if this were an article on lesbians of color or something, it would work). i see a lot of sexism within the lesbian community, not just from women who are more of the “Aggressive” set or even more masculine. i know plenty of femme women who are just as sexist toward other women and end up objectifying them in a similar way to men. so again, just be careful when you generalize. i see it on both sides.
Posted 05 Jul 2009 at 11:29 am ¶
lacey wrote:
@ Wendi, Shelby: did you have similar experiences in other parts of Spain? I have been to Barcelona but didn’t pick up on this. It could be because I’m oblivious.
Posted 05 Jul 2009 at 12:02 pm ¶
Wendi Muse wrote:
i was only in madrid
and i have heard similar stories from other women who are phenotypically “confusing” to madrilenos (read: no visibly “black” in the sense they are used to, but not “white” in the spanish sense)… while i was there, i was stared at constantly and often propositioned and spoken to in a way that made my feel unsafe in many places, obviously stares being included her in terms of making me feel uncomfortable. i wrote a little bit about my experience in an old racialicious article here: http://www.racialicious.com/2008/02/29/brown-and-out-of-town-a-poc-travelers-guide-to-racism/
but it’s depressing bc i wanted very much to like spain, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. i unfortunately had only planned to go to madrid at the time and didn’t visit other cities in spain, but now in thinking about ever going back, i am afraid it will turn into another wasted, unenjoyable trip. for now, i’ll stick to portugal (they are a lot nicer to people with brown skin there, from my experience)
Posted 05 Jul 2009 at 12:41 pm ¶
ashlynn wrote:
Wendi,
I apologize if that came off as a genralization! I am a member of the LGBT community as well; I didn’t mean all lesbians who dress in male attire, but I would be lying if I said I’ve not run into too many situations like this to count, particularly in a community that, in the scope of our struggle, should be decidedly more conscious of certain actions and mannerisms. That said, thank you for your response…perhaps I may write a bit about it and send a link.
Posted 05 Jul 2009 at 4:51 pm ¶
Nate wrote:
Re: 45. Madrid isn’t exaclty all of spain… And ’spain’ ins’t one homegonous culture. ethnicity or even langague group. It sounds like you had a horrendous exeperiance but writing off the whole country like that is a bit like me (having had ‘interesting experiences’ in Houston because of my mixed ethnicity), deciding to write off all houstonians, and all americans. becuase of the actions of a few dicks.
Posted 06 Jul 2009 at 4:46 am ¶
Wendi Muse wrote:
nate,
i am well aware that madrid isn’t all of spain, and recognize the diversity in spain. but considering that going to spain isn’t something i do every day, and it’s not a free trip, for now, i will go to places where i feel welcome and know that i don’t have to even worry about experiences like that. if someone wants to pay for me to go back to spain, fine, but for now (read: “now” …maybe i will feel differently in 10 years) i’m not shelling out money to go there.
Posted 06 Jul 2009 at 12:12 pm ¶
Elton wrote:
Precarious races?
Also, as some have said before, one could easily replace “Brazil” with “Asia” and retain the blaring racism.
Posted 06 Jul 2009 at 12:52 pm ¶
Jay wrote:
This essay reminds me of two concepts I’ve covered when studying English Literature;
1. Orientalism – in so much as in appearing to ‘appreciate’ Brazilian women this guy’s actually debasing them by sexually objectifying them.
2. One element of feminist/colonial theory draws an analogy between the colonising of land and the female body i.e to subdue a country’s peoples and take over you need to control a woman’s body. If you look back at ‘white European’ expansion into foreign countries the control of female reproduction has always been key to gaining control per se.
Anyhow- totally agree that this website is disgusting and owes much to sexism as well as racism and I agree with the guy who said you could replace Brazil with Asia and retain the same sentiment. In fact I think you could replace Brazil with any country outside of the fabled West. Sex tourism is big business not only is Asia, but Africa, the Caribbean, Latin American, eastern Europe… the list goes on…
Posted 07 Jul 2009 at 2:50 am ¶
Nate wrote:
Wendi. I went back and had a look at your previous article and wow – I owe you a big apology.
You really nailed the dynamic that does go on in large parts of spain (and a fair bit of france outside) and the racial heriarchy which views poc based on perceived willingness to assimmilate and whole the ‘refugee loyalist’ perspective (ala how the vientnanese communities are often veiwed by the older, rural generations in France).
Anyway – the point is, Props. And I’m sorry for jumping down your throat on a half arsed assumption
Posted 07 Jul 2009 at 5:05 am ¶
Wendi Muse wrote:
lol nate, no problem
i’m glad the other article helped clarify things a bit
Posted 07 Jul 2009 at 9:31 am ¶
Sparkle wrote:
I don’t see anything different about this article and the book “Don’t Blame It On Rio” which explains why black American men are traveling to Rio for sexual encounters with beautiful Brazilian women.
Seems like this is nothing new. Men have been fascinated with the exotic “other” for the past few centuries. I suppose Rio does offer men that fantasy package of a seemingly inexhaustible supply of beautiful exotic young women in a tropical beach setting.
Posted 12 Jul 2009 at 7:48 pm ¶
Eyes On Brazil wrote:
Obviously this site is about race, but I’m wondering how a mash-up of this concept would be taken. Let’s say, a foreign woman with a site on how to pick up Brazilian men. Or even the same concept but focusing on LGBT themes. And ultimately (but a discussion for another type of site), a site on men picking up women, sans the racial theme.
Although I don’t like generalizations (and therefore don’t like ‘Playing Brazil’), I don’t think his site is *that* bad. Meaning, he could definitely stand to add actual depth to his site, stop generalizing, dive into the culture and language…although having the purpose be to pick up women doesn’t jive well with me. I guess what I’m saying is, he (or anyone) could make a site praising Brazilian women, without coming off like an ass. Such a thing is possible, although perhaps more so in the academic sense. Reminds me of a Brazilian research book I have, called Homens, about Brazilian masculinity, sexuality, etc.
Posted 12 Jul 2009 at 8:05 pm ¶
Eyes On Brazil wrote:
Ok, well, perhaps ‘praise’ and ‘academic’ don’t mix well as obviously academic would mean unbaised.
Posted 12 Jul 2009 at 8:08 pm ¶