On my first day of ESL Social Studies class in my first year of school in the USA, the teacher asked us students where we were from. At the end of the class my teacher, a lovely middle-aged woman, came up to me with an excited face and said: “Brazilian women are the prettiest in the world!” I couldn’t figure out if she was thinking I proved the rule or the exception so I just thanked her and smiled.
Since that day 16 years ago I’ve heard comments like my teacher’s from men and women everywhere I’ve been. These people probably have based their opinion on Carnaval videos and last millenium photos of the beaches of Rio de Janeiro as well as the appearance of more recent belles such as Gisele, Fernanda Tavares and a roster of other gorgeous models that Brazil has exported. I wouldn’t agree that Brazilian women are the prettiest (not after I went to Sweden) but I do agree with the men who substitute the “prettiest” in my teacher’s comment with “sexiest.” The wild mix of ethnic backgrounds make us a very (the most?) exotic people. Japanese, Italian, German, African and all other sorts of people live here and mix ethnic backgrounds (for example, my ancestors were native Brazilians, Africans, Italians and Portuguese).
Certain things are built into Brazilian culture: Brazilian women are raised taking very good care of their, or rather our appearance (mostly to look pleasing to men), walking a certain way (supposedly an agent told a new model that if she wanted to be a top model she should ‘watch the Brazilians‘) and with very clean habits (3 showers a day not uncommon). So traditionally a Brazilian woman wears clothes that accentuate her curves (the booty is the center of it all), takes care of her hair, nails and skin, waxes various body parts, sways her hips as she walks and smells good. And both men and women place a very high value on the health and appearance of our teeth – we are a happy, smiley people after all!
But as the Brazilian economy has improved people have gained access to disposable incomes and after less than three weeks in Brazil I’m concerned about the Brazilian woman. In the interior areas of the states of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais, affordable junk food and cars have turned the hottest collection of female bodies in the world into a growing army of muffin tops. An increasing number of women are also spending money on silicone implants for breast and butt. Brazilian women still have the sexy way of being that’s unique to them but if they don’t watch out even the sexy cariocas (women from Rio) might end up looking like Homer Simpson on the beach (get a hold of The Simpsons episode “Blame it on Lisa”).
As for me, I’m once again too thin in Brazil, which is fine by me.
