A call for end of the “Globeleza Mulata”: A manifesto.

As most fans of Brazil’s most exuberant, most exciting time of the year already know, it’s Carnaval time! But in today’s post we bring you another in a rising tide that seeks to effectively bring an end to one of Brazilian Carnaval’s most recognizable symbols: the Globeleza. The role of the Globeleza is one that we’ve touched upon in numerous posts in the past, and for good reason. The near completely nude, hip shaking “mulata” represents all that black female activists stand against in the desired re-construction of the image of black Brazilian woman. The broadcasting of the Globeleza transmits images of the sexually available black woman to millions of men outside of Brazil as well as maintaining her in one of the two prominent roles that she is associated with inside of Brazil: sex or menial labor. As presented in a previous post, a number of black Brazilian women are fed up with this image in much the same way as the American women who saw the images for the first time. The piece presented below by two activists whose work has been featured on this blog on numerous other occasions, is not be taken as slight or a stab at the current woman who portrays the Globeleza, but rather a call to bring down the sexist, racist standards that keep women who look like her confined to such stereotypes.

Stephanie Ribeiro and Djamila Ribeiro in The Mulata Globeleza: A Manifesto (Blackwomenofbrazil)