What is it with Brazilian girls? Foreign men, Brazilian women and color and sexuality

• Grant number: 08/11573-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: July 01, 2009
• End date: June 30, 2011
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Anthropology of Afro-Brazilian Populations
• Principal Investigator: Laura Moutinho da Silva
• Grantee: Ana Paula da Silva
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The present project seeks to research sexual-emotional relationships between foreign men and Brazilian women, emphasizing "color" and secuality as important axises for the formation of discourses in which Brazilian women appear as sui generis in comparison to American and european women. My goal is to investigate how and where such discoures appear and in what ways they are mobilized and sustained by the men and women involved in transnational relationships. I intend to conduct research into historical archives and also interview men and women involved in transnational relationships in order to construct an interpretation of how the concept of a suigeneris Brazilian femininity and sexuality is constructed and maintained. I also intend to show how academic and intellectual discourses regarding the "Brazilian race" and the "Brazilian national character" have contributed to this dynamic, beginning with the 19th century. In short, this project seeks to make a significant contribution to the ways in which "color" and sexuality interact in our country as creative "difference markers" in everyday realtionships.