THE POLITICS OF BEING SCENE

Female Self-Censorship and Representations of Gender Roles in the Brazilian Drug

Trade and Film

AN HONORS THESIS PROPOSAL BY KIKA KAUI

SPRING 2014
Deborah Porter

RESEARCH QUESTION
Brazilian shanty towns, known as favelas, have garnered extreme attention from scholars
and international media. Originally created as squatter settlements when emancipation compelled
freed slaves to move to urban centers to look for work in 1988, favelas transformed into
permanent communities. Nevertheless, they are characterized by low incomes, low levels of
education, and high unemployment rates (Perlman 58). Favelas are spatial and societal
contradictions from the metropolitan areas that they are both a part of and adjacent to. They
have emerged to constitute a central feature of urban life in Brazil, and often are expressed
metaphorically as an emblem of Brazils uneven modernization, as the result of juxtaposed
images but contradictory of a celebratory samba community and of its function as a site for the
packaging and distribution of drugs (Jaguarbe 1).
Favelas have become nearly synonymous with Brazils drug trade due to high rates of
trafficking participation and publicity. Albeit the difficulties of illegal commerce measurement,
Brazil is recognized as the the most important route of cocaine trafficking from the cocaineproducing countries, like Bolivia and Columbia, to Europe and North America (de Carvalho).
And, while Brazil was not considered one of the Heidelberg Institution for International
Conflicts wars or areas of conflict, signs suggest similar effects (Biazoto 1). In 1999, for
example, there were more deaths by firearms in the municipality of Rio [de Janeiro] than
Columbia, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan or Israel-Palestine (Penglase 2007, 308). In the following
decade between 2001 and 2011, an average of 50,000 people died annually as a result of violence
(Biazoto 1). Most violence is caused by inner conflict between the drug factions, between police
and the drug factions, and in law enforcement by drug factions on community members and
traffickers.

Notwithstanding the problematic image of favelas with regard to Brazilian international

and domestic modernizing projects, since the 1990s, realistic depictions of the violence and
hardships characteristic of favela life have been well received. Seen as a commentary on the
very fabric of social construction, films featuring favelas, according to Beatrize Jaguarbe,
utilize an "aesthetic of the real." Jaguarbe argues that Brazilian society feels uncomfortable
because of their confusion regarding favelas as both positive cultural hotspots and spaces of
violence and illegality. This aesthetic of the real, she contends is the filmic response to
contemporary literary and cinematographic productions which are attempting to come to terms
with new portraits of Brazil that focus on marginalized characters, favelas, drug cultures, and the
imaginaries of consumption (Jaguarbe 1-2). Producers are thus creating films that will
simultaneously shock the reader and create a route of visual accessibility to the drug trade.
Jaguarbe writes, "The aesthetics of realism resurface as both a shock response and as a means, of
reworking the connections between representation and experience in an attempt to engender
interpretive frameworks that produce a vocabulary recognition in the midst of the tumultuous
uncertainties of the Brazilian cities" (Jaguarbe 14). Films of the favelas therefore have been
critically acclaimed for their use of realism as a tactic of representation. Furthermore, the film,
Cidade de Deus (2002) and book, Quarto de Despejo (1960), which Jaguarbe analyzes, as well as
the similarly regarded film, Tropa de Elite (2007), have been well received by the public. That
these films, and this book, have been commercially and socially successful suggests that an
interest in a realistic aesthetic is appreciated as much by ordinary viewers as by critics.

The aesthetic of the real makes legible the confusing experience of modernity in urban
Brazil. While Jaguarbes argument is helpful, she fails to identify a gap in the realist aesthetic,

namely the absence of representations of women who participate actively in the drug trade.
Although scholars have identified a trend in filmic representation of women that reflects a more
nuanced understanding of how women navigate stereotypical gender boundaries in order to
ultimately transcend them, the contexts in which this agency is deployed is still traditional, that
is, in spheres of romantic and filial love (Sadek). It does not, in other words, extend to the site
and contexts of the favelas. In City of God and Elite Squad, women rarely appear, and much less
as working within the drug trade. More typically, their roles are limited to include that of love
interests, including wives, girlfriends, and crushes, and more occasionally, of a teacher or
mother. Representations of women, therefore, are limited, and when they do occur, women
barely register as figures endowed with agency. This provides a disconnect within these
realistic representations.
Evidence shows that this exclusion and limitation of women in these filmic
representations do not reflect a realistic portrayal of women in the favelas because they are,
indeed active within the drug trade. In fact, women are increasingly engaged with the drug trade
in roles of agency. For example, women are consistently employed as mulas, or mules, who
transport large packets of cocaine (two to three kilos) from favela wholesalers to retail outlets in
favelas (Leeds). Female "manicurists, prostitutes and shop attendants" also regularly engage in
selling drugs for benefits such as supplemental income (Zaluar 372). Women are also good
candidates for wrappers and packagers of cocaine (Leeds). Indeed, prisons are experiencing rapid
increases of women in the drug trade. The juvenile detention center in So Paulo found that
while there were still more boys than girls with drug trade backgrounds, the percentage of girls
in the drug trade to girls incarcerated for other crimes was higher than the boys. While 19.7
percent of girls were interning because of drug trade involvement, only 11.8 percent of boys

were linked to trafficking (Holzman 62). Furthermore, the number of girls interned due to drug
trade involvement has risen from 0.7 in 1988 to 27.1 in 2000, a number far higher than the rate of
increase for boys (Holzmann 62). Finally, while men are the main perpetrators of violence,
personal narratives and interview nevertheless show that womens involvement, while more
regular in less violent spaces of the drug trade, do in fact extend to areas of violence (Gay,
Barcinski). Ultimately, women's roles are expanding within the drug trade, and while scholars
suggest that they may face limitations, the fact is that they increasingly, involved in every facet
of drug trafficking.
Given that the favela drug trade is represented with an aesthetic of real in film, and that
women are active participants in the drug trade, why is their role elided in filmic representations
of drug trafficking?

HYPOTHESIS
I will argue that the absence of representation of women working in the drug trade in films
about favelas reflects these womens own elision of their agency in order to preserve the status
quo of the "machismo", which, if threatened, would affect their growing means of empowerment.
Self-censorship of expressions of agency within the drug trade thus serves as a strategy women
use to accommodate normative gender values all the while seeking to improve conditions of their
own livelihood.
Notions of machismo and marianismo are driving factors in the Brazilian drug trades
normative gender values. The successful machismo and the successful drug dealer share many
distinguishing traits. Ideally, they are callous, womanizing, dominant, violent, and proud

(Stevens and Penglase 2010). They also both provide paternal support to the communities and
the people who raised them (Penglase 2010, 324). For this reason, the two have become
synonymous; success in the drug trade necessitates the existence of basic machismo traits.
While the "macho" can often be attained through respect and success at work, in politics,
or within a trade, it is less straightforward for men of favelas. These men are often publicly
humiliated or disrespected by police and authorities (Penglase 2010, 322-323). If they want to
escape this degradation by leaving the favelas, they continue to encounter problems of
inadequacy because of their lower levels of education and lack of qualifications for jobs
(Perlman). The drug trade, on the other hand, provides opportunity for the respect, dominance,
and resources desired. Thus, the drug trade embodies opportunity for financial, physical, and
political security, amongst other historically machismo qualities.
The heightened significance of machismo is inextricably connected with gendered notions of
marianismo, which refers to feminine qualities, such as docility, submissiveness and maternal,
which are associated with Jesus mother, Mary. Scholars of gender issues in Brazil have
identified marianismo as a powerful force that informs both the actions of real women as well as
the portrayal of women in social media. Yolanda Quinones-Mayo and Rosa Perla Resnick have
shown how women are more likely to learn to cook and clean at a young age to avoid the anger
and physical abuse of displeased future husbands (Quinones-Mayo 265). Julee Tate qualifies
these norms as limiting, and suggests that, from an early age, Latin American women are taught
to view themselves and other women through the lens of marianismo. As a result, women are
taught to experience social pressure to conform to their assigned roles as mothers (Tate 26).
Adelman goes further, however, to contextualize these norms within the Brazil-specific macho
norms. She agrees that qualities of marianismo are integral in womens own perception of

womanhood, but she calls attention to how the muse and the mother are the places offered
women under these social codes and in their legitimating discourse - obscuring, of course, the
real lives of women who, in Brazil, as in other parts of the world, have actively engaged in
struggles for survival, dignity, and reconciliation (Adelman 560). Adelmans incisive analysis
supports my thesis that favela womens acceptance of marianismo social codes must be viewed
as a strategy active in the drug trade as a means to lift themselves out of poverty and
violence. Women in the favela at once embody marianismo as supportive girlfriends and wives
and mothers, but they also embody the strong gangster (Barcinski).
I agree that women are actively upholding roles of machismo and marianismo, but I argue that
this is happening strategically, in order for women to create new spaces for their own success.
Women benefit both in their role as influential male traffickers wives or girlfriends as well as by
being traffickers themselves. Yet, the only way to sustain both roles is to appease the male quest
for machismo qualities within trafficking. Only then can women use these roles to also
subversively extend spaces for themselves within the existing drug trade.
Anecdotal evidence shows that women have the ability to simultaneously benefit from
the status awarded to girlfriends and wives of drug lords, while also gaining respect and money
from drug dealing themselves. Barcinski works extensively with drug dealing women in four Rio
de Janeiro favelas to find that women can join and enjoy the status, money and respect they
earned from being high ranking members of the drug trade. Denise, one female general of one
favela, felt very strong and powerful when she was a drug trafficker. She mentions the respect
she used to get from people... (Barcinski 126). And yet, Robert Gays interviews with another
woman, Lucia, show how she was able to gain financial security and respect solely from her
status as the drug lords wife. Denises account also suggests that her appointment to general of

her favela started because she would cook and do favors for the men. Women thus enjoy benefits
that derive from the machismo gender structure as well as their creations of new spaces for
success that are, in part made possible by this construct (Barcinski 125).
Women also prefer to work within these gendered constructs because, even as they create
new spaces for their own success, there is a pervading fear of a violent male reaction to changing
gender roles. Denise, who acts as the "strong gangster," nevertheless fears her husband, to whom
she is "powerless and submissive," and even claims that he retains the right to physically abuse
her (Barcinski 127). There is a pattern of women fearing drug trading men and it is qualified
because men display a fear of dominant women. Men fear the dominant woman because while it
muddles gender roles in general, it creates even more significant changes within the status of the
drug trade's machismo. Given that machismo is a benefit of the drug trade, changed gender roles
would eliminate one of the few venues where men can achieve this status. Men do not want to
lose the space for their own expressions of machismo. Research has shown that men in the
Brazilian drug trade are invested in retaining their dominance over women, and their recognition
of changing gender roles has the potential to create conflict (Penglase 2010). Women, who are
recognized as less armed and less violent, thus have an incentive to censor the social changes
that they in fact usher in. Because women simultaneously fear mens reaction to their own
success in the drug trade they strategically censor their success in subverting gender roles to
mitigate the changes so as to appear to uphold macho status quo. Barcinski supports this claim
with her finding that, specifically, "women in criminal activities seem to emphasize their roles as
caretakers and their involvement [in crime] is often characterized as protective of relationships
(Barcinski 112). Silence thus masks activity; this activity is effectively censored from the
broader public discourse of violence and the drug trade. It is this self-censorship that is reflected

in the realistic representations of the favelas which elide womens active participation in the
favela drug trade.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Scholarship regarding the drug trade in Brazil usually focuses on the violence that it catalyzes.
As men are commonly the perpetrators of violence, much work has been done on how machismo
qualities shape the drug trade. While efforts by the government to pacify violence in favelas have
generated scholarship that seeks to humanize residents and counter unfair stigmas, most
scholars still identify machismo culture as a defining characteristic of favela drug life (Vitanza).
Studies pertaining to women's role in the drug trade, however, are much more limited. Most
gendered studies of women in Brazil and Latin America are informed by the social constructs of
maternity and marianismo, as earlier noted. (Rondon, Stevens). The gap in scholarship about
how women involved in the drug trade affects gendered stereotypes is an area that this thesis
seeks to redress.
Given my argument that women ostensibly support codes of behavior associated with a
machismo culture, scholarship that examines the fixed (male) roles that are still very common
in Brazilian society is important (Holzmann 56). Significantly, the significance of these roles is
heightened within the context of the drug trade, which is structured by expressions of violence,
force, and power constructs. Machismo identity is associated primarily with the access of a

position in society that commands respect due to the power a man is able to wield. Economic
success and educational and occupational prestige constitute possible means to achieving power.
Other means for achieving this involves violence or coercive methods. Holzmann argues that
the conflict between two versions of manhood... [is] the central identity struggle for men in
these [favela] settingsthe reality of racism, classism and social exclusion - the denial of access
to jobs, status, respect, and goods - is a major reason why so many young Brazilian men, in their
search of an identity, opt for a violent version of masculinity by involving themselves in drug
trafficking gangs (Holzmann 56). The drug trade thus constitutes an outlet for marginalized men
of the favelas who want to exercise machismo character traits that they recognize as societally
and historically respected. Favelas are thus spaces constructed by exaggerated machismo
qualities.
Robert Penglase argues that the organization of the drug trade is itself structured and justified in
adherence to machismo roles. He discusses how drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, use a
gendered ideology of masculine authority to structure their relationships with residents of the
citys favelas (Penglase 2010, 317). In one example, he shows how the traffickers and other
citizens of the favelas call the drug lord pai de morro or father of the hill (Penglase 2010,
317). He suggests that, gendered notions of respect provide traffickers with a useful way to
legitimate their influence, naturalizing inequality, and silencing contestation (Penglase 2010,
317). In this way, the drug trade supports a masculine space contextualized by machismo
qualities. Quinones-Mayos work discussed the prevalence of machismo qualities in leadership
roles, which establishes a paradigm for imitation and group identity construction. (QuinonesMayo 259).

Alba Zaluars concept of a masculine warrior ethos relates to how male quest for machismo is
linked to and reflected in the structure of the drug trade especially with regard to the importance
and legitimacy of violence in this context (Holzmann 57). That the objects of violence frequently
include women implicates female gender roles in machismo space.
While men have used the drug trade to expand space for masculine expression, women, who are
naturally divergent in spaces of machismo, have effectively been excluded from spaces that were
once open to them. Scholars have cited various responses to this. Some scholarship demonstrates
how the hyper masculinization of favela space created unease and even fear among women
(Henery). Other scholarship, however, suggests that women do have the ability to strategically
reclaim spaces that have been held hostage to them (Glen).
Celeste Henery suggests that as men have expanded space for themselves, women have adapted
to this shift in accessibility. Based on her work with older women in the favelas of Porto Alegre,
she argues that trafficking in the area began rendering the streets into male-dominated spaces of
surveillance and sometimes threat, principally due to mens involvement in trade and the
circulation of police (Henery 96). Henery extends her analysis to girls and young women in
these favelas. She finds that they view the favelas with more ambivalence than the elders, due to
their increased subjection to the dangers, stigmatisms, and violence from the drug trade, which
occurred much later in the lives of elders. Henery thus contextualizes womens roles in the drug
trade to show findings of submissive acceptance and silence to the expansion of male machismo
via the growing and powerful drug trade.
Yet, more theoretical scholarship suggests that women actually are able to transcend machismo
constructions to both protect their own security while simultaneously reclaiming space (Panelli).
Ruth Panelli, et al. suggests that "Women are not merely objects in space. Where they experience

restrictions and obligations, they also actively produce, define, and reclaim space" (Panelli 498).
Panelli and others thus perceive women, gendered constructs notwithstanding, as an autonomous
and conscious group in society; they argue that women do have the agency to react to masculine
encroachments on favela space. In order to argue that women are reclaiming space, but also
uphold Henerys data, we must look into a very specific subversive strategy.
Silence and self-censorship, as it were, have been studied as a rhetorical strategy for the creation
of change. Cheryl Glen is one of the few authors to focus extensively on silence as an offensive
strategy. She suggests that silence can even be the most effective way for a person or group of
persons to express hatred, anger, or irritation. Silence thus has the ability to mask, show or
highlight feelings, and Glenn, views discourse and silence as reciprocal communicative powers
rather than binary opposites (Vant Hof). Glens perspective offers a different vantage point
from which to view what Henerey saw as female acceptance: silence can be interpreted, in other
words, as an intricate awareness and reaction to existing discourse. Sheriffs suggestion that the
notion that silence among women need not simply a corresponding absence within womens
consciousness. The silence of women and other subordinate groups need not be read as an
acceptance of dominant ideology... (Sheriff 118) constitutes an underlying premise of my
research. My analysis of female self-censorship amongst women who live in favelas and actively
participate in the drug trade seeks to illuminate the strategies used by women to transcend
confining gender roles.

METHODOLOGY
Over the next three months, I will gather data that will help me reconcile the women's
portrayed and actual roles in the drug trade. I will collect data from three specific source:

personal interviews, the City of Men series and feature film, and City of Men reviews in order to
analyze, compare and contrast the different ways that women enact gender roles and how these
actions are conveyed differently to the public and through the lens of the media and responses by
the public.
The first source of data will be transcripts of two extensive personal interviews,
conducted by Robert Gay and Mariana Barcinski, with two women who were once involved in
but have since left the drug trade in favelas. The data is exceptionally detailed (174 pages in the
case of Robert Gay's interviewee, Lucia), and raw. Barcinski's interviewee, a woman named
Denise, also generated abundant material. The interviews were part of a larger study on female
identity. While Gay's analysis has been critiqued because it "does not appear to be making a
single argument about violence and poverty in Rio..." but rather, "uses the interview strategy to
construct a biography of a person who would not otherwise attract literary attention" (Arias), the
breadth and scope of his material constitute an important source, especially because Lucia's
responses to the questions reveals how she "dances away from" implicit assumptions in the
questions (Arias). I will focus on the choreography of this dance to tease out how and why Lucia
censors herself. Barcinski's data was generated by her interest in how drug trafficking women
construct "identity simultaneously as a woman and criminal" (Barcinski 107). Her research
agenda thus correlates with mine. Nonetheless, I will subject the data to a different type of
analysis. Whereas Barcinski plumbed her data to reveal the existence of a duality of identity
within female traffickers, I, on the other hand, have already established this binary, and will
analyze the data for information that sheds light on the source of this doubling. In other words, I
will examine the data for evidence to suggest that the doubling results from women's apparent
complicity to machismo culture all the while engaging in ways to alter their experience and

agency within the favela. Transgression of female gendered roles, working in drug trafficking, is
balanced by upholding the machismo status quo. The data from the interviews will serve as the
backbone of my research
I expect that these two sources will combine to yield examples of women's relationships
with spaces of opportunity, both through retaining old machismo qualities and transgressing into
trafficking. They will be the backbone of my research, as they most accurately and honestly
discuss women's involvement in the favela and the drug trade.
I will analyze these interviews to find patterns in womens discussions regarding topics
of gender roles, female agency, male superiority and violence, and gender expectations. Given
the wide scope of Gay's interview, and the relevant scope of Barcinski's, I will study how
women's responses support roles of machismo and mitigate their own agency in order to avoid
attention on their own activity. As I search for these patterns, I will categorize them through
questions, including but not limited to, "How do Brazilian women view their roles in society?
Are their differences in views of idealistic and actual roles?" "How to women discuss
expectations of male reactions when women believe they have done something wrong?" as well
as more open-ended questions, such as "Do women act evasively to some questions more than
others?" These questions will allow me to focus my research to topics that will directly inform
my analysis in relation to my hypothesis.
I will then subject my next group of sources, television and film, to the same analysis,
using the already created questions and categories from the interviews. The TV series and feature
film by the same name, City of Men (2002-2005 and 2007) together chronicle the lives of two
young boys growing up in the drug trade of the favelas. The series, though very popular and

spanning four seasons and three years, only has 19 episodes. I will thus be able to watch all of
them, as well as the feature film that was the delayed capstone. Critics have compared the film to
its predecessor City of God (which actually has an entirely different plot), finding that City of
Men provides a "lighter but also more emotionally satisfying take on the lives of favela
gangsters" (Elley). This suggests that critics view City of Men as similarly - if not more realistic than City of God, which fulfills an important part of my discussion; namely the elision
of women's roles from films that are touted as having an aesthetic of realism.
Further, these films will provide important data for three reasons. First, the increased
airtime suggests that characters were more developed and that there was more opportunity to
address issues of the favela. I assume that women's roles would thus be part of this extension,
either through actual characters or discussions regarding these roles. As I have noted, there have
been few representations of women in films, so this would be particularly helpful in
understanding the gender roles in filmic representations of women in the drug trade. Second, this
series and feature film span five years, necessitating the protagonists and scenery to evolve
accordingly. This change is important because, as there has been an increase in women
involvement in the drug trade, it would make sense that this increase is reflected within media.
This will be an important point of analysis. Finally, I will be able to use this series and film as a
data source to compare representations of women in the media to the actual way that women
represent themselves in interviews. Through the analysis of these representations of women, I
will discuss how media constructs gender roles in general and within the drug trade, and compare
how constructions of female agency differ between television/film and the interviews.
The final data source I will use is reviews of this series and film. I will find this data from
national review sources that the University of Washington libraries have access to, as well as

through the Brazilian national newspapers O Globo and O Dia, and Brazilian film critic
companies. I already quoted Derek Elley's opinion regarding realism in City of Men. I believe
that a collection of different reviews with contextualize how the public reacts the filmic
representations of favelas and the women - trafficking or not - within them. I anticipate that these
reviews will, amongst other things discuss the effects of the male producers and cast,
contextualize public opinion of favelas and gendered spaces within them, and address the
political or socio political biases or discussions posed within the series. Through collecting this
data, I will be able to analyze how filmic representations of women and the drug trade inform or
are accepted by the public, and research the different ways the public, the media, and the actual
women see gender roles within the drug trade, and how these three sources may inform or feed
off one another.
I believe that through individual analysis, as well as comparing and contrasting these
three sources, I will inform my hypothesis, and discuss disparities between women's
transgressive actions and simultaneous upholding of gender norms. However, I will have to be
aware of how men are also actors who shape gender representations in media. I will thus have to
discern what roles men and women have in media production and use the critical reviews to help
me reconcile women's representations with this is mind. It is for this reason that my main focus
is on the more direct and private interviews by Gay and Barcinski, which will then inform my
analysis on the other two forms of media.
I will gather and organize data almost exclusively in June, July, August, and the
beginning of September. During the fall of 2013 I will write an extended literature review that
engages with scholarship on women, the drug trade, gender roles, and counter hegemonic
strategies. By the winter of 2014 I will return to the data collection to administer a detailed

analysis of both my findings and the wider scholarship. With this analysis, literature review, and
raw data, I will be able to fully defend, or potentially alter, my hypothesis both verbally and
through my completed thesis in the spring of 2014.

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