Identidades in English No 3, September 2014 | Page 24

Women and the World Cup in
Brazil 2014 (I)

class and gender in Cuba and the world

Dr. Rosivalda dos Santos Barreto
Professor. Bahía State Public Network
Bahía, Brazil

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occer was played for a very long time in
many ancient civilizations, for example:
the Mayan and Olmec. Goulart (2014) indicates that the oldest forms of soccer were also
played by even older peoples, the Tsu Chu, in
China; Kemari, in Japan; Epyskiros, in Greece;
Harpastum, in Rome; Pok to Pok Iucatã, in Mexico; the Ullamaliztli, in the Aztec empire; Soule,
in what is today France; Gioco-Calcio, in Florenca; and Schrovetide, in the British territories.
These games went through innumerable processes and modernizations, which resulted in the
soccer that men and women today play all around
the world.
The game’s popularization brought about a global
and international competition by Frenchman Julius Rimet. The World Cup emerged as FIFA (International Federation of Associated Fútbol) in
1904 and took place for the first time in Uruguay,
in 1929, with barely four European teams competing (Belgium, France, Yugoslavia, Romania)
and others from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile,
the United States, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and
Uruguay. They say that the other European countries did not participate due to administrative and
financial reasons. It is noteworthy that this project
has been in the works since “the first international
friendly, international game that was played on
November 30th, 1872, in Glasgow, Scotland”
(FIFA 2014). Since then, the game has not
stopped evolving; now there are different forms
of soccer for closed stadiums, beaches, and for
clubs, each one with its own world cup.

The popularization of soccer did not generate interest among the white elite to include blacks in
Brazilian soccer. The black population was prohibited from playing; in 1921, President Epitácio
Pessoa prohibited the selection of black players
for the América Cup. He alleged that he had to
show the world the best of Brazilian soccer. Yet,
blacks had been attending games for a long time
and when the ball went out of bounds, those who
were by the sidelines would play for a few seconds before returning the ball. This gave rise to
the term “baba” in Salvador de Bahía.1 Due to the
segregation of poor people and blacks, soccer became a national passion and an object of manipulation and alienation. The situation got even
worse during the time of the 1970 Cup, due to the
military dictatorship and the popularity of the nationalist song “Pra Frente Brasil” [Onward Brazil]. This is how Brazil’s international image as
the land of samba, beaches, beer, soccer and
women was constructed.2 It is important to
acknowledge the role Osvaldo Sargentelli (19242002) had in exporting the image of the black/mulatto Brazilian woman as lascivious, sensual and
available.
Where do women come in in this image of the
2014 Cup? In Adidas’s attempt to promote its
World Cup T-shirts (Figure 1). These would be
sold in U.S. stores without interference fr om the
Brazilian government. There were debates of
women’s indignation as a result of these T-shirts
and President Dilma Rouseff, asserted that there
would be no toleration for sexual tourism despite