Why Women's Soccer Was Banned in Brazil — Until 1979
Why Women's Soccer Was Banned in Brazil — Until 1979
By Ryan Wallerson
Before the penalty shoot-out that decided the semifinal of the Olympic women’s soccer tournament in Rio de Janeiro this summer, Brazilians had grown cautiously hopeful that their newfound heroes would pull through. When their side fell to Sweden, 4-3, Brazil’s captain and five-time player of the year Marta Vieira da Silva fell to her knees, weeping. Her teammates and coach put aside their own sorrow to console her, understanding full well that Marta’s tears were about more than one fútbol match.
Brazilians are famously soccer-obsessed, but that addiction applies only to the men’s game. The country largely ignores women’s soccer, whose matches have historically suffered from low attendance and inadequate funding at both the club and national level. During the Olympics, the women’s team grabbed the country’s attention because it looked, at least for a while, like they were more likely to bring home Brazil’s first gold medal than the men. When the ladies lost, attention swiftly shifted back to the men, who caught fire in the knockout stages and ultimately nabbed gold.
For the women’s team, and Marta especially, the loss felt like a missed opportunity to earn Brazil’s respect for good. Though the team did fall short, the attention it garnered was an impossible dream not so long ago. From the moment soccer arrived in Brazil, from Europe, in the mid-1800s, it was an exclusionary game. At first, it was played only by the country’s male white elite. As the men’s game began to diversify at the turn of the 20th century, women also began leaving the stands for the pitch. There is debate over when the first women’s soccer match was played, but historian Fábio Franzini has written about at least 10 women’s teams, including Cassino Realengo and the Eva Futebol Clube, competing in tournaments in Rio de Janeiro as early as 1940.
As the popularity of women’s soccer surged in Brazil, a citizen named José Fuzeira grew concerned and wrote a letter to then-president Getúlio Vargas. Fuzeira contended that women who went into football would compromise both their reproductive organs and sense of femininity, noting that “within a year it is probable that throughout Brazil there will be … 200 centers to destroy the health of 2,200 future mothers, who, moreover, will be caught in a depressive mentality and given to rude and extravagant exhibitions.”
More:
http://www.ozy.com/flashback/why-womens-soccer-was-banned-in-brazil-until-1979/72241
= new reply since forum marked as read
