ABSTRACT

Rio de Janeiro’s favela funk movement has been one of Brazil’s most important contemporary cultural and musical expressions. Favela funk arose out of Rio’s slums and combines diverse Brazilian and other beats from the African diaspora, and lyrics are performed with an aggressive, mocking tone, filled with sexual references. Poor women of colour in favela funk, also known as funkeiras, have been responsible for much of the celebrity media attention the movement enjoys, and with feminism’s recent renewed popularity, the women have been more frequently confronted with questions of feminism, considering most of them perform songs about gendered relationships. This essay investigates how and why once some funkeiras begin to call themselves feminists, they tend to engage in a more palatable (meaning, white and middle class) version of their femininity. As their performances of femininity become more conforming, their positive visibility as feminists in celebrity media increases – a drastic change, considering that celebrity media often portrays funkeiras in demeaning and scornful ways. I conclude that celebrity culture and mainstream celebrity feminism push funkeiras into normative performances of femininity that, though not necessarily traditional, are infused with norms that privilege whiteness and middle-classness.

摘要

里约热内卢的贫民窟放克运动一直是巴西最重要的当代文化和音乐表现形式之一。Favela funk 起源于里约的贫民窟，结合了来自非洲侨民的巴西和其他节拍，歌词以侵略性、嘲弄的语气演绎，充满了性暗示。贫民窟放克（也称为 funkeiras）中的有色人种贫穷女性是这场运动受到名人媒体关注的主要原因，随着女权主义最近重新流行，女性更频繁地面临女权主义问题，考虑到其中的大多数表演有关性别关系的歌曲。这篇文章探讨了一些芬基拉如何以及为什么一旦开始称自己为女权主义者，他们往往会倾向于采用更可口的（即白人和中产阶级）版本的女性气质。随着她们对女性气质的表现越来越顺从，她们作为女权主义者在名人媒体中的积极可见度也在增加——考虑到名人媒体经常以贬低和轻蔑的方式描绘 funkeiras，这是一个巨大的变化。我的结论是，名人文化和主流名人女权主义将 Funkeiras 推向了女性气质的规范性表现，虽然不一定是传统的，但注入了赋予白人和中产阶级特权的规范。