I was talking to my boyfriend this weekend during our lunch in a small shopping mall near his house. Between a French fry dipped in ketchup squeezed onto a folded napkin and a bite of the crispy chicken snack, he was telling me about a teacher who works at the same school where he teaches...
In a "window", or better said, during the time between one class and another, the Portuguese professor started a conversation with my boyfriend, claiming he didn't really understand why Brazilian television explored so much the image of women – preferably wearing little clothing – in auditorium programs or advertisements.
My boyfriend tried to explain to his colleague that, in Brazil, this is something very common and natural and that the image of women had always been exploited in this way, which is regrettable, concluded my little guy!
I honestly don't understand this type of approach towards women... Or rather, I do, and I'm very sad about it. It's very bad to know that, for common sense, women are still an item 
consumption for men, generally associated with beer brands, men's perfumes or cars. The frill – this use of the female image for male consumer goods – is something so strong, so present in Brazilian culture that it underwent (a long time ago) a process of naturalization and sacralization. This process does not allow people to perceive the sexist and consumerist discourse that is present in them... After all, what's wrong with a group of dancers dancing in skimpy clothes at the back of the stage while the presenter talks nonsense?!?!? It wouldn't even have been, if it weren't for all this sexist speech. After all, I wonder: these programs are mostly watched by women, so why aren't there men dancing with the girls?
What really cracks me up is the fact that women accept to submit to this discourse. Well, then someone might say: "Ah... But it's just that this speech is so natural, so latent, that you don't understand it." Then I say that things are much worse, because if we don't even have the capacity to analyze what is behind the innocence of the phrases and images released by the media, then we really have a very big problem of analysis and interpretation... which makes me think about the education of children and young people in our country. Soon, everything that television sells will be easily consumed by people... The sad thing is when these products are people...
And don't even give me the excuse that the Brazilian people are liberal, sensual, etc... Why is that, my love, we are tired of knowing that it's not real... We are, still, a people who live under the inheritance of a Jewish/Christian patriarchal discourse that treats women as a man’s possession… My God!!!
The message is given...
Kiss, kiss, kiss… I went…
