Futebol de mulheres: um estudo feminista nos campos e nas arquibancadas de João Pessoa/PB

Abstract

This master's thesis carries out a study, from a feminist and gender-focused standpoint, about women taking up important spaces in the football of João Pessoa-PB, specifically the fields and in the grandstands. The research begins on the football field and is designed through a historical journey on the presence of women in the women's football of the capital of Paraiba, visiting what is understood as the first signs of assembling an organization, until arriving at the present day of this discipline. Then, on the grandstands, the research analyzes the presence of women in protagonism spaces within the "torcidas organizadas", which are associations of football fans in Brazil. To that end, we chose two of Botafogo-PB club's "torcidas organizadas", one from the shaded side of the grandstands of Almeidão Stadium, in João Pessoa, the "Império Alvinegro 1931 - A Resistência", and another one from the sunny side – the "Torcida Jovem do Botafogo-PB". Our purpose is therefore to identify whether, even with women taking up these spaces, patriarchal and sexist constructions still remain. Therefore, a discussion around the concepts of gender, patriarchy, sexism, and feminism is needed, founded on Beauvoir (1967), Louro (2001), Butler (2003), Bourdieu (2002), Foucault (1988), among other female authors. We used the methodology of participant observation, based on what Magnani (2002) proposes, and virtual ethnography (CANCLINI, 2015; MORSE, 1998), due to the need for social isolation triggered by the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) pandemic which made it impossible to carry on with the research on-site. For the study, we built profiles of the female directors of the chosen "torcidas organizadas", based on interviews already taken before the pandemic and retaking others online in order to deepen the data. The final results point out that women taking up markedly masculine spaces in football is a reality that has come to remain, but is in a constant process of construction, considering that it is a daily contribution to end sexism in football. Feminism, in this perspective, gains the force of change and restructuring of a scenario that changes daily with the presence of women. The stories of women who have used this feminism to break down the barriers that sexism imposes in football reflect the need to insist on fighting for all of us.