A report by Getting to Know Your Opponents guest Diane Sousa from Brazil.1
- The first balls...
- The first barriers...
- A ball, a small kickabout area and the first moments in a game between boys and girls...
- The chance to play in big teams...
- Street football and the integrated "Cip Jovem Cidadão” youth projects programme
- Final thoughts
- Report by the DFB Cultural Foundation on women’s football in Brazil: "Getting to Know Your Opponents": Brazil – No country for women’s football
- Video with Diane Sousa: Kickfair
It all began ... in the Baixada Maranhense3
I’ve been playing football since I was nine!
My first contact with the ball came on the street outside our house, together with my cousins and school friends.
The game was very simple. Back then, ten years ago, we had room on the street that was unique to every one of us. Our parents would always say that our street was “our home”. Everything took place there!
The street was the place where we informally shared all the different things that we experienced, where we could be free without being afraid of smiling and of getting to know new friends from other districts, where our dreams took shape and we all pictured our future together. Regrettably, this space is increasingly losing its character.
At the end of the afternoon, around 4 p.m., we would begin to play football – with four bricks we had borrowed from the neighbours or picked up from the curbside, and a ball. The ball would also be borrowed, or one of us would have been given one at the beginning of the month when our parents had been paid their wages. At times, we would also resort to using the famous “vaquinha”! “Vaquinha” was the name we gave the centavos we managed to scrape together. This was our way of helping each other out as friends, a brilliant solution for us. Anything that went into the kitty was welcome: ten centavos, fifty centavos ... until we finally had saved three reais at some point, which meant that we had enough to buy the cheapest ball that could be found in the local shops.
We called this plastic ball the “pico de jaca”. But buying the ball was just the beginning of the story. Being the cheapest ball there was, it didn’t take long for it to wear out. Whenever somebody hit it into the neighbour’s barbed wire fence, it was bound to get pierced. One good hard kick and it would burst. That’s why we literally had to cook the ball over a fire to make it harder and more resilient. This made the ball shrivel but meant we could play with it for a week or two. This cooked ball gave us enjoyment and pleasure! Everyone on the street would make up teams, determine how the defence should line up, challenge each other...
At about five in the afternoon, the game would be over. Around this time, our parents would call us in to get showered and have dinner. It’s a time that I look back on with very fond memories!
For the most part, these arose at home, in my own case within the family. There were relatives who judged me because I played football. I had dolls and I also played “house” with my girl friends, but I also remember that we enjoyed playing football. Because of my partiality to the sport, there were frequent blackmailing attempts on both sides: my relatives wanted to keep me from playing football, and we [kids] wanted to continue playing at all costs because for us it was a kids’ game.
So, since I kept on playing football, I was given the nickname “maria machinho”, tomboy, among others. That did bother me somewhat I have to say. Of course, I wanted to play, but I often found myself copping out or unable to play for some reason and came to terms with the situation. I believe that, whenever children show an interest, the family should help them take part in these educational practices. I love football because I feel free when I play, but the realisation that we [women] are in a position not just to play football but also do other activities is always missing. I say this because, in reality, a holistic approach is needed for a social structure to materialise which offers people the same chances and educational opportunities.
There can be no doubt whatsoever that we women have the capacity to do so – just take a look at Brazil and you will see how many inroads women have made in the course of all these years and over the last two decades in particular. Who would have thought, for example, that a woman would ever become state president? And now we have Dilma! In the second week of May, a photo of Luiza, one of Brazil’s leading businesswomen in the retail sector, adorned the cover of the weekly magazine “Época”. She competes on even terms with the traditional corporate groups in this sector and is the visible head of the business. I say the visible head because, in many instances, the woman plays a decisive role but always takes a backseat and is never seen. Let us look at another example – far removed from the Baixada and Brazil – that took place in the northern hemisphere ... and is much closer to home for you: it is conceivable that Nannerl (Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia Mozart) could have become as famous as her brother, but since it was the place of women to remain behind the scenes, the only people familiar with her are those who have read the biography on the musician.
Historically speaking, the same thing has happened with football in Brazil. How many Martas could have come to the fore by now? How many women could have been happier and less oppressed?
A ball, a small kickabout area and the first moments in a game between boys and girls...
Boys only tolerated girls on their teams after a lot of flattery and provided that they could play. Otherwise, they would never have dreamt of picking us – but we really didn’t care about that. We just kept plugging away because we were desperate to play. In my case, I was one of those that “knew how to play”, although this didn’t make my life any easier, because there were no spare places and a lot of male players wanted to join the teams.
Things moved very fast; players were not substituted, and if we wanted to play – provided we were allowed to play – then we also had to bear the consequences, i.e. hard-hit balls would rain down on you and no one cared about whether you were of a more delicate nature. Slowly but surely, we adopted this male form of playing football and the games went on.
There were a lot of school tournaments, but all of these were designed for our fellow male pupils. There was not one women’s tournament. On those exceptional occasions that presented themselves to girls, there often were not enough of them to form a team because they lacked regular match practice. In this case, boys were asked to make up the team and especially to play in goal. From that very moment, they felt that they ruled the team, which was very irritating.
All this is deeply ingrained in a Brazilian culture in which women are still viewed as very fragile creatures, for example, who burst into tears at the slightest opportunity, who lack the strength for this and that and are not allowed to or cannot do this, that or the other. But in reality, no one has ever asked us whether we can or not. Or what we can or want to do. In our society, laws have simply been created and customs and traditions have emerged which dictate what people are or are not allowed to do.
The memories that remain in spite of all these barriers are of a time in which we were very happy. On soil, tarmac, grass and shale, and in the mud and on the flooded pitches of Baixada Maranhense, our beloved pantanal, I often succeeded in kicking my innermost feelings out of the park. And it was the ball that gave my foot unerring focus and strength.
In the town of São Bento, I learned – together with my friends – that a ball and a small space could give us all kinds of opportunities to dream and be happy and to emancipate ourselves.
Today, I understand that the game between boys and girls as a performance attempts to create equality irrespective of any biological inequalities: in the kickoff, in terms of style ...
If you see the game from the perspective of being a method of mediating in street football over its three periods – 1st period = discussion; 2nd period = the game; 3rd period = the evaluation – then boys and girls don’t test their strength together but are united in sharing a ball which, driven on by all, rolls across the pitch. If a boy can hit the ball with full force, a girl can do the same, but she can still have a sharper mind ... and vice-versa. In other words: the sum of all skills evens out. What counts is diversity without distinctions on the pitch.
The chance to play in big teams...
Over time, I struck new paths. With that, I mean that I conquered other venues, played in sports halls with good-quality balls, together with lots of girls and without the obligatory boy in goal. Then I began to compete in tournaments against other schools and other classes and also in city tournaments.
Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays were sacred days for me and the other girls, which we kept free in order to play football in a sports hall in one of the districts in my city. We attracted a sizeable crowd; people liked watching us, and they were indeed really brilliant matches. I can say that in all modesty!
It was on one of these match days, after I had finished playing about three games, that a man approached me and asked if I was interested in playing at other venues in Brazil. At that moment, I couldn’t resist smiling, but he was totally serious; there was just one problem: in the past, I would definitely have been itching to do this, but now it was as if the itch had subsided!
From this day on, my mind was focused on other questions: how could I help my family? What could I do? I had to help them out, of course, but without doing myself harm and without letting people walk all over me. It was then that I decided not to embark on a professional career in club football, and I don’t regret it because I realised that football can be a lot of fun, that it is a passion! A beautiful game and I find everything that you can do with a ball so fantastic, but the competition, the performance itself, and putting my life in the hands of business people – none of that excites me. As much as playing the game is a freeing experience on the one hand, it entails belonging to one “master” on the other, an even greater imprisonment.
Since then, I have been convinced that “competing” in sports is only worthwhile if it proves to be the only way for men and women to settle a dispute without resorting to firearms. If two countries want to flex their muscles, they should do so on the football pitch. Let them argue, but let them play without anyone having to die in the process. Then they should walk hand in hand to the changing rooms, shower and then make their way home to their families.
I want to stand up for football, for the emancipation of Brazilian women who actively play sports and still want to play football on the street in their district, on kickabout areas or take part in festivals. I want to lead a life that is coupled with a zest for life and which is in harmony with my dreams and respects my privacy, in which I share everyday life with my family and I can contribute towards society through the work I do.
Street football and the integrated "Cip Jovem Cidadão" youth projects programme
It was in December 2006 that I first came into contact with “CIP Jovem Cidadão”. Initially, it had little to do with street football, but music – one of my other great passions. It all came about at a time when the organisation in Baixada Maranhense welcomed 20 members of staff from one of its patrons, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. They were also in my town and I took part in the youth events organised by the centre for vocational training, “Centro de Ensino Médio e Educação Profissional (CEMP)”, where I did my apprenticeship. Back then, I had also received an invitation to attend from the pros from the arts and culture faculty at “Instituto Formação” to play with youths from this faculty at the same time as the youth forum was being held in my town. I was thirteen years old at that time! I received lots of information on this project and found all of it really interesting, even though the countless details and large number of parallel activities had me a little confused.
In the same year, “CIP Jovem Cidadão” arranged for a group of youths from Baixada Maranhense to fly over to Germany to watch the World Cup. On his return, one of these youths, who came from São Bento, mobilised young people in the town to pass on to them what he had learned and set up a street football work group. He came from the physical education, sports and leisure activities department of the youth forum. I said to myself: excellent, I want to join in! It was all about football, after all.
Together with many friends from my district, both girls and boys, I joined the work group. When I arrived, I was somewhat taken aback: the method they were applying was pretty strange ... Three periods? Boys and girls playing in the same game, a match that lasted longer than ten minutes, with no disrespect or violence? Revisiting the whole thing during the third period? All-round agreement on how to treat each other? I was certain that this couldn’t work.
I observed everything and slowly grew to understand. I joined in and took part afterwards in the youth forum and the various activities organised by CIP Jovem Cidadão.
Then, all of a sudden, I was presented with an opportunity to play "away". I was already part of the forum and no longer the same girl, really! I first came across the forum at thirteen. Today, I’m nineteen and can say that it isn’t easy propagating the idea of football as a recreational sport and not a competitive sport in Brazil, but it isn’t impossible!
Street football has allowed me to experience other ways of cohabiting with other people, respecting them, understanding them and also understanding myself. With every new workshop that I hold with children, teenagers and youths, I become more human. The participants overcome their inability to speak when confronted with something new and they experience joy in showing solidarity when actively playing a sport that is always purported to be one that is all about winning. This inclusion method suddenly enables those to prevail who are the politest and in a position to respect everyone for all their diversity. From one foot to the other, the ball that is thrown to the ground weaves a net of solidarity, emancipation and the struggle against prejudices.
Many of the children, teenagers and youths that I have worked with have told me that they had not touched a ball before because they couldn’t play, but that street football had allowed them to do this. This only affirms that the difference lies in the opportunities which present themselves - or not - to each individual despite their limitations. I come from Baixada Maranhense and, like many others from this area, have done nothing else but seize an opportunity that presented itself to us.
Since 2003, many youths from Baixada Maranhense have been given a chance to share and compare their experiences and perceptions with youths from other countries. Young Brazilians have been given an opportunity to get to know and get to love the region they live in. They are now trying to develop the same region in the hope that they can create a society where all citizens are equal, and to build up a region with their dreams of being “ambassadors to Baixada” in a variety of areas: in communication, art and sport. All of this is possible because if you can see past the end of your nose, you will get to where you want to be. Dismantling prejudices is an attitude that emancipates all parties.
In closing, I would like you to consider one thing. I can imagine that there is hardly anyone here who does not see music as something that requires sensitivity and, with so many men and women performing it, as something that – through the resonance of the notes – enables us to approach the most sublime things in the world! Music whisks us away to new heights. Between 1751 and 1829, the time when Nannerl was alive, the society in Europe in which she lived would possibly also have called her a “tomboy”, just as Brazil’s society, with a few exceptions, still does in the 21st century to refer to girls who want to play football. In our eyes, the ball which rolls across a muddy or grass surface is, in the end, very much like the notes in music that our ears pick up. For those who feel passion, both scenarios lift and free their soul.
In my opinion, society should make faster progress in the struggle to overcome prejudices than it does in new technologies. Who knows? Perhaps the use of technological aids, coupled with football, can turn the dream of women’s emancipation into a reality, because this is the only way for us to create a more humane and sustainable world for the generations to come. We should all play our part in seeing this through to the end.
Footnotes:
1 This text forms the basis of a series of lectures given in Germany between 16 and 21 May as part of the “Getting to Know Your Opponents – GENDER KICKS On Tour” event which coincided with the staging of the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
2 Diane Sousa works for the “Formação” organisation in the areas of sports and social participation. Since the age of 13, she has been involved in measures carried out by “Formação” through the physical education, sports and leisure activities education programme – “CIP Jovem Cidadão” – in the town of São Bento. In 2008, she took part in the South American championships in Chile and, in 2010, was a representative for “Formação” during the ASA exchange programme at the KickFair in Germany. In the same year, she also took part in the street football festival in South Africa as a mentor. She is currently coordinating the sports and leisure centre project in TR Campos e Lagos, which is funded by the “Fundação Banco do Brasil” Foundation and devised and coordinated by “Formação” in conjunction with other organisations from Baixada Maranhense, and is also jointly responsible for developing new projects.
3 Baixada Maranhense is a region in the federal state of Maranhão and situated to the west of the state’s capital, São Luis. The region is also not far from Belém, the capital of the federal state of Pará. Baixada is, in part, made up of coastland, and its vegetation typifies that found on the perimeter of the Amazonas. Although the population is largely black, the region is also inhabited by whites and numerous mestizos of mixed white, black and Indian origin. It is a beautiful region, with rivers and babassus palm forests; its fields and lakes become flooded during the rainy season, turning them into marshland. As soon as the rain stops, the aridity quickly returns – just like the semi-arid countryside in the north-east. Given the concurrence of fresh water and sea water, very little of the water resources is drinkable and both the public water supply and the river water treatment are inadequate.
GENDER KICKS 2011
- Overview: Gender Kicks 2011
Country focus: