Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Theodicy and Ideology: ‘Everybody Needs an Ideology to Live’
- Chapter 2 The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth; But in the Meantime They Shall Watch Telenovelas
- Chapter 3 Suffering Soaps; Fragmented Bodies
- Chapter 4 The Politics of the Vagina
- Chapter 5 The Redemptive Womb
- Chapter 6 The Invisible Back
- Final Feliz
- Illustrations
- Table: Women Respondents
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 5 - The Redemptive Womb
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Theodicy and Ideology: ‘Everybody Needs an Ideology to Live’
- Chapter 2 The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth; But in the Meantime They Shall Watch Telenovelas
- Chapter 3 Suffering Soaps; Fragmented Bodies
- Chapter 4 The Politics of the Vagina
- Chapter 5 The Redemptive Womb
- Chapter 6 The Invisible Back
- Final Feliz
- Illustrations
- Table: Women Respondents
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
There is an extravagant fraudulence in the easy reconciliation made between the common attitude of contempt for women and the respect shown for mothers.
(de Beauvoir 1988, 538)It is December 1999. In Jardim Cruzeiro, 18-year-old Francisca de Pinheiro is perched on the bed breastfeeding her youngest child, 6-month-old Gabriela. There is a brief moment of calm in her room. Her other children are lying on the bed behind her, drinking their bottles of sweet black coffee. The only light is from the small, flickering black-and-white television 3 feet away from her. Suddenly there is a crash on the corrugated iron roof. It has started to rain and cockroaches whirr around the windowless room. She is mesmerized by the image on the screen. Terra Nostra, the eight o'clock novela, is on. The beautiful young Italian immigrant, Juliana, is breastfeeding her baby. Juliana looks at it adoringly. There is a close-up of her face: her blue eyes are filled with tears of joy. Then there is a close-up on her breast and the suckling baby. The baby moves its head, its huge blue eyes staring up at Juliana's smiling face. Francisca is enraptured. The scene on the telenovela continues for several minutes, accompanied by dreamy music.
Francisca leans forward to turn up the sound, and as she does so the door creaks open – in walks her sister-in-law, 16-year-old Jaqui. She is four months pregnant and on one of her hips she is carrying an 18-month-old nephew.
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- Body Parts on Planet SlumWomen and Telenovelas in Brazil, pp. 81 - 98Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2011