As they say all Carnival has its end, and this year has finally ended, as did all the debates around the Brazilian party. The girl Julia Lira (discussion of 2010) paraded, not only paraded as wept. Julia cried with the media attention upon her person and only after being caressed by her mother, like any child, was that she managed to recover and sambar.
But why expose a child of 7 years old and crown her as the queen of Viradouro Samba School, the sexiest position of the Brazilian Carnival? Her father, Marco Lira, who is the current president of the school, probably seeing the talent of his daughter dancing, did not think twice about putting her in the spotlight, and maybe get some media attention. Mr. Lira got it right; the name Viradouro was read and heard in all corners of the world. However, I ask myself, what was the reason that made Julia desire to dance in a position occupied by adult women, usually half-naked? Probably the media again.
In Brazil, there is a rule, if you are pretty and famous, you will end up as the queen of some samba school, and Julia, probably seeing this situation wanted to be as famous as such women. She probably dreamed to become a celebrity and her father used the girl's dream to his own benefit.
The whole thing made me wonder if the Brazilians are not reaching a limit, a limit where we expose our women too much, a limit of manners and respect. Is it OK to expose our bodies, just to get the media attention? At any moment, those women feel overused? And further, why the Brazilian people agree with all this? After all are our daughters, wives and sisters being exposed as a piece of meat.
But why expose a child of 7 years old and crown her as the queen of Viradouro Samba School, the sexiest position of the Brazilian Carnival? Her father, Marco Lira, who is the current president of the school, probably seeing the talent of his daughter dancing, did not think twice about putting her in the spotlight, and maybe get some media attention. Mr. Lira got it right; the name Viradouro was read and heard in all corners of the world. However, I ask myself, what was the reason that made Julia desire to dance in a position occupied by adult women, usually half-naked? Probably the media again.
In Brazil, there is a rule, if you are pretty and famous, you will end up as the queen of some samba school, and Julia, probably seeing this situation wanted to be as famous as such women. She probably dreamed to become a celebrity and her father used the girl's dream to his own benefit.
The whole thing made me wonder if the Brazilians are not reaching a limit, a limit where we expose our women too much, a limit of manners and respect. Is it OK to expose our bodies, just to get the media attention? At any moment, those women feel overused? And further, why the Brazilian people agree with all this? After all are our daughters, wives and sisters being exposed as a piece of meat.
It's such a difficult issue. Women should be allowed to promote themselves in the way in which they chose and have the freedom to have the same choices as men do about how they present themselves, but at the same time, young girls and as young as 7 in this case are looking up to these women because of the attention they are receiving and they want that too. They want to feel good about themselves and for that, no one can really blame them but they should be looking to feel good about themselves in other ways as outer beauty is only skin deep.
ReplyDeleteDavid Cameron raised an issue I saw in Saturday's Times, where he feels there is a strong oversexualisation of children and it is something that our society needs to fix. But how can you reverse such a trend as young women will never stop wanting to be attractive and our current society has made it ok to exploit young women.
A very sad article though nonetheless, especially as the seven year old probably felt it was her fault that they came last, not the fault of society.
Hi Emmanuelle,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you, it is really hard to talk about this issue. And this was my point while writing it, I want to see people discussing about this matter. In Brazil is normal to people expose their bodies, and I think that not just women, but everybody should be allowed to do whatever they wish to do, however I believe that we, as human beings, are in a stage of media influence so big that sometimes we cannot distinguee our own wishes from the media’s desires.
I think Julia Lira is the only victim of all this. I do not wish to say what is right or wrong, but by the way Julia reacted was clear that she was not prepared for attention she got. And it is such a shame to see that her family’s members were involved. I agree with Mr. Cameron, I believe that we as a society should review our principles.
I agree that women should be allowed to promote themselves as much as they want and nobody should judge anyone for that, however in here we are talking about a seven years old child that is clearly being over exposed by her parents, probably with the best of the intentions, but still I think thats not a position that a girl of her age should be in.
ReplyDeletethe over sexualisation of children as Emmanuelle said is becoming a big issue nowadays and I think is medias fault because they grow up in an environment full of sexual references.
As elvira said we have to review our principles.
Hi Alberto
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. I agree with you, women should be allowed to promote themselves in the way they wish. The problem is not with the women but how the media is using people to promote their own business. Julia’s case is a sad example and should be revaluated. In Brazil the media have a tremendous power on people and we as PR students must be aware of this huge influence. We must learn how to communicate ethically.
It's a bit worrying when you hear how much power the media has over the public. The media has the power to influence a decision and even change it. It's a natural human instinct which I feel we all have gone through in our childhood, we see something that everyone has got and we want it too and that's what the media can sometimes manipulate, they keep raising a story and making it so big that slowly everyone starts to believe it and we just follow the 'trend'. In Julia's case a part of me believes that a child should be able to do what they love no matter what, however the way her parents did not account for the fact that she is seven and going to be exposed in front of the media in such a way can translate to be a bit selfish. Parents should not push their young children to participate in something if it could effect them in the long term and judging by this case, all this media attention seems to have affected a seven year old girl which could potentially dishearten her from what she loves, dancing. I think it's time we start to consider the implications too much media attention can give to an individual.
ReplyDeleteHi Bal
ReplyDeleteYou have put into words exactly what I think about this issue. The media exposure is definitely too strong on us, and becomes dangerous in cases like Julia’s. It is good to see a discussion happening around this matter, for me it means that apart from the media influence, we still have our own thoughts and opinions.
Channel 4 have a documentary about the media and celebritism....its called starsuckers, it will be worth watching.
ReplyDeleteHi Juliana
ReplyDeleteCould you please let us know when the documentary is going to be broadcast?
Thank you very much.