The woke war on Brazil's Carnival

[Judi Lynn]

Is there nothing middle-class puritans won't try to suck the joy out of?

RAPHAEL TSAVKKO GARCIA
27th March 2020

Carnival, which takes place in February, is one of the most important festivals in the Brazilian calendar. It is a huge event that takes place across Brazil, filling its streets with samba-school floats, blocos (street bands), and millions of people dressed up as anything they want, from sexy nurses to celebrities and politicians. Costume-wise, what matters is creativity.

But ahead of this year’s Carnival, identitarian activists tried to stymy this creativity. They argued that certain costume choices were either a form of ‘cultural appropriation’ or simply offensive. To make things worse, Ceará state’s Public Defender’s Office issued a list of costumes it deemed offensive, including those that evoked religious figures and ethnicities. It also urged male partygoers against dressing as a woman, which is a longstanding Carnival tradition.

This politically correct attack on a country-wide party that historically involves the breaking of social rules and the profaning of the sacred is not new. In recent years, traditional songs (called marchinhas), which have been sung for decades, have been censored for being considered offensive to minorities. Songs with lyrics like ‘Maria Sapatão, sapatão, sapatão, de dia é Maria, de noite é João’ (‘Maria big dyke, big dyke, big dyke, by day is Maria, by night is John’) are hardly heard today. Having censored the songs, it seems the identitarians are now going after the costumes.

This year, actress Alessandra Negrini dressed up as an indigenous woman during pre-Carnival celebrations and was soon facing calls to be cancelled. What made this absurd is that Negrini was wearing the costume in order to draw attention to the persecution and violence suffered by several indigenous tribes. She even had Sonia Guajajara, an indigenous Congresswoman, at her side, and the support of campaign group Brazil’s Indigenous People Articulation (APIB). APIB issued a statement saying, ‘Alessandra Negrini put her body and voice at the service of one of the most urgent causes’.

More:
https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/03/27/the-woke-war-on-brazils-carnival/

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Actress Alessandra Negrini

Google translation from Diario de Pernambuco:

Alessandra Negrini characterizes herself from India for carnival and choice generates controversy
By: Diario de Pernambuco
Published on: 17/02/2020 09:52 | Updated: 17/02/2020 10:13

The actress Alessandra Negrini became the center of a controversy on Sunday (16). When she left India for the Carnival of Baixo Augusta, of which she is the queen, the choice generated discussions.

In an interview with Folha de S. Paulo, the actress commented that the indigenous struggle is everyone's.

“The indigenous issue is the central issue in this country. It involves not only the preservation of their culture but also the preservation of our forests ”, he said.

Alessandra was in the company of indigenous leaders, such as Sônia Guajajara. The actress stated that, for having a political objective, the production could not be classified as a cultural appropriation.

https://www.diariodepernambuco.com.br/noticia/viver/2020/02/alessandra-negrini-se-caracteriza-de-india-para-o-carnaval-e-escolha-g.html

[mr_lebowski]

1. The PC police can be pretty annoying ... I'll leave it at that (nt)