Correa & Olivar Revfinal 8Th Febr-2

The Politics of Prostitution in Brazil: Between “state neutrality” and “feminist troubles” By Sonia Corrêa and José Miguel Nieto Olivar1 The early debates As in many other places around the world, discussions about prostitution2 in Brazil intersected with political debates regarding the abolition of slavery in 1888.1 Christina Pereira (2005) observes that when European medical doctors visiting Brazil around 1840, and began studying prostitution with their local partners around, a large majority of the prostitutes were black slaves. Venereal diseases, particularly syphilis, were associated with prostitution and both were interpreted as symptoms of social degradation resulting from slavery. During this time, state proposals regarding prostitution were inevitably mired in the complex political spirals of the growing anti-slavery struggles. The call for abolition of slavery and prostitution was deployed as a modernizing and civilizing proposition: to abolish slavery and prostitution was to promote social and political progress. For instance, in the 1870s when anti-slavery sentiments were at a peak, Miguel Tavares, a police sheriff in Rio de Janeiro, “liberated” around 200 slaves who were engaged in prostitution. Though this episode is remarkable, state intervention did not shift towards the abolition of prostitution, nor was the so-called French model of regulation adopted. This model prescribed the definition of restricted zones for the exercise of commercial sex (red light districts) and systematic public health intervention to prevent venereal diseases among prostitutes as a way to protect spouses and families. A number of factors explain the reluctance of the Brazilian elites to accept the French model, which would project the image of the state becoming a “master” of the prostitutes. Such a move would have been politically unacceptable in light of the calls for abolition of slavery (Pereira 2005). Liberal repudiation of state regulation of private life might have also played a role in this unusual policy restraint. On the other hand, since prostitution was seen as a “necessary evil” in the eyes of the male elites, its abolition would have negative impacts on male sexual behaviour and family structure. Even after slavery was abolished in 1888 and the Republic established a year later, the Brazilian state neither adopted the French model – as happened in Argentina, 1 1 A key partner in this exercise was Adriana Piscitelli, an Argentinean anthropologist who lives in Brazil and teaches at the Federal University of Campinas and is recognized as one of the leading researchers on matters related to sex tourism, prostitution and trafficking in Brazil. We also thank all women who graciously made time in their busy agendas to be interviewed. In the feminist and lesbian communities: Betânia Ávila (SOS Corpo), Claudette Costa (Liga Brasileira de Lésbicas), Elisiane Pasini (THEMIS), Jacira Mello (Instituto Patrícia Galvão), Heliana Hemetério (Grupo Arco Iris), Rosângela Castro (Grupo Felipa de Souza), Valéria Pandjiarjian (CLADEM, Brasil). In the sex work community: Friederick Strack (Advisor to the Brazilian Network of Prostitutes); Gabriela Leite (DAVIDA and Brazilian Network of Prostitutes), Janaína Lima (Grupo Identidade), Nilce Machado (Núcleo de Estudos da Prostituição), “Laura” prostitute who works in the central area of Porto Alegre. 2 The terms ‘prostitution’ and ‘sex work’, ‘prostitute’ and ‘sex worker’ have been used interchangeably in this chapter, though the term ‘prostitute’ is more widely used in Brazil. Uruguay and Colombia – nor did it assume a strong abolitionist position with regard to prostitution. This was despite the fact that pressures on the state to abolish prostitution increased as the country became a recognized destination of trafficking of “white slaves”. By the early 20th century, in addition to slaves and poor Brazilian white women who offered sexual services, many foreigners, in particular Jewish women from Eastern Europe transported to Brazil by the so-called Jewish mafias, inhabited the sex markets in Rio and São Paulo. This unresolved debate left a lasting imprint on Brazilian state response to prostitution. The current legal frame borrows from the abolitionist frame of criminalization of those who exploit prostitution, but does not go as far as to criminalize soliciting or the practice per se. Since the 20th century, and most particularly after 1920, the state invested heavily in the control of venereal diseases, but did not implement well-defined zones or health identity cards for prostitutes. This choice of a middle ground hygiene policy is not trivial because according to Carrara (1996) the discourse and state interventions regarding the “growing and appalling incidence of syphilis” constituted a core element of public health concern until the 1940s.2 On the other hand, this ambivalence triggered conflicts between the police, judicial authorities and prostitutes. Though these were not based on written rules they affected the lives of sex workers negatively. But there are other angles to prostitution in the late 19th and early 20th century which also should be highlighted. Rago (1985) and Kushnir (1996 analyze how prostitution and prostitutes played a significant role in the early period of Brazil’s modernization and urbanization. Rago (1985) examines how strict sexual morality was connected with women’s incorporation in the proletariat during the first waves of Brazilian industrialization. Later (1990) she examines how male elites who until then had remained very “provincial” were impacted on by the sophistication of European prostitutes working in São Paulo. Both authors recapture the history of a self- supporting association created by prostitutes of Jewish origin in Rio de Janeiro, which constructed a cemetery for the community and ensured a “pension” for the prostitutes who could no longer work. All told, Brazilian policies with relation to prostitution between the late 19th and late 20th centuries contradictorily combined moral “tolerance”, police intervention, judicial regulation and strong hygiene concerns. This “model” did not inhibit prostitution, but left the space open for calls for eradication of sex work to capture the social imagination and for state and societal violence against sex workers to remain unquestioned and unpunished. It kept alive the latent 19th century notion of prostitution as a necessary evil, while allowing for prostitution to be portrayed as a realm of seduction, pleasure and freedom in literature, cinema and on television. It is not, therefore, surprising that contemporary politics regarding prostitution erupted into an open rebellion against police abuse. It later expanded and gained increasing social legitimacy as part of wider citizenship struggles around the state response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Contemporary trends: 1970-19903 In 1979, protests against police repression of streetwalkers in São Paulo ushered in the era of contemporary politics of prostitution in Brazil. The Amnesty Law was also approved in the same year. This represented a turning point in the Brazilian democratization process (Leite 2009).4 The violations perpetrated by the police in São Paulo triggered a reaction from the prostitutes themselves and mobilized the support of artists, intellectuals and also of the emerging gay movement (Grupo Somos) as well as a few feminists. Given the prevailing censorship, the impact of the protest and its political visibility were remarkable. Notably, it opened the space for prostitution to be included in the agenda of Brazilian democratization. Efforts aimed at fighting discrimination, stigma, police violence and calling for respect with regard to prostitutes’ work gained support not just among artists and intellectuals, but also among progressive religious groups, mainly the Protestants.5 While progressive Protestant sectors were the main supporters of the newly emerging prostitutes’ movement, the Catholic Pastoral of Marginalized Women was also created during the same period. Although under the influence of the Liberation Theology, the Pastoral was mainly devoted to “rescuing” women from degradation, some of its branches shifted focus from the moral condemnation of prostitutes to a critique of prostitution as an effect of the capitalist system. By the early 1980s the politicization of prostitution had become a full fledged reality. Gabriela Leite, who had emerged as a key voice, appeared in the national media and also participated in seminars and other public events. Soon, leadership from among sex workers emerged in many other cities around the country. The Brazilian Network of Prostitutes was created during the first National Meeting of Prostitutes in 1987, the focus of which was on “violence”. In 1988, the newsletter Beijo da Rua (Street Kiss) was launched with the headline “Prostitution is not a police matter”. Right after the establishment of the National HIV/AIDS Program (1988), the second annual National Meeting of Prostitutes revolved around prevention programs among sex workers. Between 1990 and 1993 a number of local associations of prostitutes were created and local and state level meetings organized (Olivares, 2010). In 1994, the third National Meeting of Prostitutes discussed health and sexual fantasies. Five years later, the Brazilian Network of Prostitutes became a member of the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Sex Workers (REDTRASEX), which was founded in 1997. It is worth looking more closely into the connections developed

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