Representation and stereotypes of black women in Brazilian cinema

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1590/1806-9584-2019v27n254549

Abstract

This article presents a feminist critique of the Brazilian film industry through the analysis of the
representation of black women in the highest-grossing movies over the last years. Our effort is divided in three parts: first, we review the literature on gender and race in Brazilian film, showing that the interplay between these categories has been seldom explored and the few works that do it suffer from methodological flaws; then we make a descriptive quantitative analysis on the profile of the top-grossing movies produced in Brazil; and, finally, we propose a typology of stereotypes associated with black and brown female protagonists. The results allow us to conclude that black women are still severely underpresented and predominantly represented by negative stereotypes that convey oversexualization,
mischievousness, and domesticity.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Marcia Rangel Candido, Instituto de Estudos Sociais e Políticos (IESP-UERJ)/ Doutoranda

Doutoranda em Ciência Política no Instituto de Estudos Sociais e Políticos da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (IESP-UERJ). Pesquisadora visitante no Departamento de Sociologia da Universidade de Cambridge entre outubro de 2018 e março de 2019, contemplada no edital do PDSE (Processo n. 88881.187853/2018-01). Este artigo foi possível graças ao fomento da FAPERJ à pesquisa de mestrado e a bolsa de doutorado CAPES BRASIL/ INCT – Instituto da Democracia e da Democratização da Comunicação.

João Feres Júnior, Diretor e Professor no Instituto de Estudos Sociais e Políticos da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (IESP-UERJ)

Docente e diretor do Instituto de Estudos Sociais e Políticos (IESP-UERJ)

Downloads

Published

2019-09-05

How to Cite

Candido, M. R., & Feres Júnior, J. (2019). Representation and stereotypes of black women in Brazilian cinema. Revista Estudos Feministas, 27(2). https://doi.org/10.1590/1806-9584-2019v27n254549

Issue

Vol. 27 No. 2 (2019)

Section

Articles

License

Revista Estudos Feministas is under the Creative Commons International 4.0 Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), that allows sharing the work with recognition of authorship and initial publication in this journal.

The license allows:

Sharing (copying and redistributing the material in any support or format) and/or adapting (remixing, transforming, and creating from the material) for any purpose, even if commercial.

The licensor cannot revoke these rights provided the terms of the license are respected. The terms are the following:

Attribution – you should give the appropriate credit, provide a link to the license and indicate if changes were made. This can be done in several ways without suggesting that the licensor has approved of the use.

Without additional restrictions – You cannot apply legal terms or technological measures that prevent others from doing something allowed by the license.