CITIES OF GODDESS: ROLES AND EXPERIENCES OF WOMANHOOD IN THE MILITARIZED FAVELAS OF RIO DE JANEIRO

Abstract

The story of the 2002 film “City of God”, which was based on a book with the same name, is totally centralized in male characters and ignores almost completely the strong presence of women in the favelas, whose characters are relegated to lovers of the male characters or their mothers, with little or no focus on the experience of womanhood in such places. However, the often-neglected role and experiences of women in the context of urban violence play a pivotal role in the understandings of the dynamics of its state of affairs. Women are gang members or supporters, partners, mothers, messengers, carers for the wounded, and women endure the challenges of motherhood in violent spaces and struggle for justice for the victims assassinated by the police forces. Moreover, with the militarization under covered in “pacification programs”, gender relations are reinforced. This paper aims at a gendered approach of the situation and consequences of the militarized favelas of Rio de Janeiro, in which women’s roles and experiences help to shape the understanding of the state of affairs of such areas.

Keywords

• feminist studies
• governmentality
• militarization
• securitization
• brazilian favelas.