I spent the last four days doing my first set of interviews. I interviewed a professor who researches hazing, a professor who researches gender violence and is organizing efforts and resources to help victims, several student feminists and a professor in charge of a project to revise the current policy at their University. Here’s a quick overview of my first impressions:
In each of the interviews, what everyone said was remarkably similar. There’s a feeling that the conversation about sexual violence is just beginning in Brasil. This conversation has been fueled (and possibly even started) by the sexual assault cases that were in the media.The link is in Portuguese, but Google does a pretty good job with it.
Second, I heard many times that this problem is part of the culture. In Brasilian culture, women have been raised to say yes and it’s historically been a very “male dominated” society. Several women mentioned how common and accepted it is to be groped and harassed on the metro when it is crowded. In every interview, it came up that when something happens to a woman it is very common to hear questions like “well what was she wearing?” “Has she been drinking?” or “Dressed like that, she was asking for it.” This even occurs at the police stations that are specifically designed to help women (and are staffed primarily by men).
Here I am in the student center!
The other interesting thing was the response of the administration to these problems. According to those interviewed, there is a feeling that there is no real motivation from the leadership to make any progress on the issue. There is a lot of bureaucracy in education in Brasil, and this male dominated culture is prevalent in the Retoria (the leadership of the colleges, similar to a Dean or Provost). This feeling has caused activism to be pushed “underground,” so to speak. Each “Faculty” (equivalent of a major in the US) has a colectivo feminista – a group of student activities trying to advocate for women’s rights and new policies. In one case, a colectivo feminista responded to comments made by a fellow student about how women are not discriminated against by flyering the walls of their classrooms with educational posters about feminism.
All that being said, there has been recent change surrounding sexual assault and sexual violence. There has been pressure on universities to do more about the issue. In one university, a professor is beginning to evaluate the problem of sexual violence on their campus and consider new policies. In another, the university has just created a new Women’s Office that will serve as a resource for women experiencing an issue.
All in all, a very interesting set of interviews. And I had a great sampling of Brasilian food during the, interviews (pão de queijo, pastel, batatas fritas, e uma caipirinha).
More fun facts about Brasil:
- – There is graffiti everywhere, even (especially) on the university campus
- – The students went on strike for three months because bus prices were too high. School was shut -down. There were riots that involved rubber bullets and tear gas.
- – Medicine is an undergraduate course of study.
- – Universidade de Sao Paulo has nearly 100,000 students.
- – Valentine’s Day is June 12th in Brasil.
- – I went to Rio, because everyone told me I should.
Next Stop: Lisbon.