Discourse about Brazilian team present in the Folha de S.Paulo during the year of realization of the “Germany World Cup”

Abstract

One of the segments that exerts strong influences on the social field is the media. By producing images and discourses about reality, it can reinforce the social imaginary in relation to some themes. In this sense, several national studies have shown that the coverage of sports media privileges men in detriment of women. The aim of this study is to analyze quantitatively and qualitatively publications about Brazil women’s national soccer team present in the sports section of the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. The collected data refers to the reports published between January 1st to December 31st, 2011, year of the Germany World Cup. For that, it was opted for the adoption of the content analysis methods because they direct the researchers in the analysis of several types of materials, among them, the ones found in the media. The quantitative results, 37 publications in total, associated with the qualitative results, which also demonstrated the precarious coverage offered to the modality, validate the conclusion that for the sports media in general and in the “national” imaginary feminine soccer is still considered something of little significance.

Soccer; Brazil; Gender; Media

Resumo

Um dos segmentos que exerce forte influência sobre os campos sociais é a mídia. Ao produzir imagens e discursos sobre a realidade, ela pode reforçar o imaginário social em relação a algumas temáticas. Nesse sentido, diversos estudos nacionais têm mostrado que a cobertura da mídia esportiva privilegia os homens em detrimento das mulheres. Assim, o objetivo deste estudo é analisar de maneira quantitativa e qualitativa as publicações acerca da seleção brasileira de futebol feminino presentes nas páginas de esporte do jornal Folha de S.Paulo. Os dados coletados referem-se às matérias publicadas entre os dias 1 de janeiro e 31 de dezembro de 2011, ano de realização da “Germany World Cup”. Para tanto, optou-se pela adoção dos métodos da Análise de Conteúdo, pois eles direcionam os pesquisadores na análise dos diversos tipos de materiais, dentre eles o midiático. Os resultados quantitativos, 37 publicações no total, associados aos qualitativos, que também demonstraram a precária cobertura ofertada à modalidade, validam a conclusão de que para a mídia esportiva em geral e no imaginário “nacional” o futebol feminino continua sendo algo praticamente insignificante.

Futebol; Brasil; Gênero; Mídia

Introduction

Brazil is worldwide known as the ‘soccer country’. Nevertheless, the essence of thousands of boys and, actually, some girls residing here, finds itself embedded to the dream of becoming in this sport discipline. Even if professionalism isn’t reached, the passion for soccer doesn’t diminish, it is only transported to another sphere, one of the entertainment and the grandstand^1-2.

Therefore, it can be said that soccer is, undoubtedly, the sport with most significance and representativeness in Brazil. The Breton sport, a constitutive element of national identity, daily composes the life of millions of Brazilians, always articulated to other socialcultural aspects³ .

These factors are easily observed throughout a World Cup. In this period the working routine and the city architecture are significantly changed. Companies, residences, trade, clubs, socializing institutional and all other sports stop in order to cheer the national team on, while integrating the green and yellow to their everyday lives.

Soccer’s significance and representativeness have several support pillars. Among them is the Brazilian team, and the idols and heroes who make part of it⁴. According to GIGLIO¹, it is not possible to think about soccer without the presence of the idols and heroes, because they are the link between this sport and society.

Through this soccer “status quo”, the Brazilian team and its players have their names and images publicized in the sports “global media”^a. However, it is also at this moment that is possible to realize the symbolic contrast in this sport discipline, because it doesn´t dispose of the same sentimental proportions in the social imaginary when it comes to add the “feminine” word.

Even though it occupies an expressive space in media, soccer is still a field that promotes a continuously huge inequality between men and women. Inequality that is resized through media, a symbolic equipment that is able to influence the social imaginary about the ways of thinking, feeling, acting, that is to say, living⁵.

As such, it is necessary to ask; in twenty-first century, a period after several women achievements in different social fields and more specifically in soccer, through the achievements of the feminine national team and specially its main player, Marta. What is the space achieved by feminine soccer in sports media? How are the team and the players portrayed?

In face of this scenario, the objective of the present study is to analyze in a quantitative and qualitative manner the publications about the Brazilian team in the sports editor of Folha de S.Paulo^b, in 2011, year of Germany World Cup. Therefore, Content Analysis methods has been chosen to this study, because they direct researchers in the analysis of different materials, including media.

Based on the objective outlined and the bibliographic review previously done, some hypotheses were raised:

H1 - It is expected to find a low periodicity of articles about feminine team during 2011;

H2 - It is also expected that the largest number of publications about the Brazilian team is seasonal to the period of the World Cup;

H3 - It is believed that the content is these articles are associated to the discourses about the feminine fragility and corporal esthetic, spectacularization and masculinisation, to the detriment of the technical and tactical analysis;

Considering that the media’s visibility can influence positively and/or negatively the social imaginary structuring, it has become of utmost importance to present data that clarifies the relationship among media, woman and soccer.

Media, imaginary and social imaginary

The media is known in democratic societies as the “fourth state” (in allusion to the other three typical states in a Democratic State, the Legislative, the Executive and the Judiciary). This expression was created and spread due to its capacity in (re)producing information, representation, rules of behavior, symbols, senses and social dominant realities^5-6.

In this way, it can be said that in the contemporary society media is a field that exerts large influence over other social fields that, like it, are interrelated with human life. Therefore, it is believed that media can influence reality, because it corroborates to the understanding of BERGE and LUCKMAN⁷, when theses authors relate that this is social built.

While (re)producing a huge variety of images and discourses of social realities, media, modeled by the specifications of its vehicles, takes part in a feedback of the social imaginary. Concerning to this argument, BACZKO⁸ exposes the following:

It is created... very complex relations between information and imaginary. The mass media is not limited in raising the information flow; it also modulates its features. Information is received in a continuous form, several times a day, encompassing the whole world, conjugating static data with media and affecting all de domains of social life (p.313).

The intense flow (the visibility) and the features of the media productions can influence the social imaginary in a persuasive manner. They direct groups to the re(creation) of the representations related to events, object and people, which are not always true, but become the most disseminated⁹ versions, allocating themselves underlying to the manners of being, thinking and action of them.

In this sense, considering the contemporary power of influence of media, before moving forward, it is necessary to define the terms imaginary and social imaginary. Durand cited by SANCHEZ TEIXEIRA¹⁰ defined imaginary as “[…] a necessary conector through how all human representation is constituted, being underlying of the manners of being, thinking and acting (of mentalities) of individuals, cultures and societies.”(p.19-20).

According to BOURDIEU¹¹, mental representations identify and control societies, beyond making them being known and recognized through their structural conformation. Consequently, the author affirms that social imaginary constitutes a web of mental representations of a society, legitimating its power and its control by means of symbols and the notion of belonging that they strengthen. BACZKO⁸ completes this argumentation, saying that the definition of the imaginary is complex, referring to a fundamental aspect of human condition, because according to this author the addition of the word “social” to the construct does not decrease its complexity, though, it designs a double phenomenon. On one hand it refers to the“[…] production of representations of the “social order”, the social actors and their mutual relations (hierarchy, domination, obedience, conflict and etc), as well as to the social institutions, in particular to those that concern to the exercise of power.” […]; and, on the other hand designates “[…] the participation of the individual imaginative activity in a collective phenomenon. Indeed, all times have their specific modalities of believing, feeling and thinking” (p.309).

It should be pointed out that media doesn´t create by itself the representations that structures the social imaginary. These are based on people’s experience, as well as on their desires, aspirations and wills⁸. That is to say that their representations are a historical product, structured through livingness, socialization and interpersonal communication with society’s institutions (school, state, family, church, media), that are going to exercise power of influence that are inherent to each one of them.

As a result of a collective experience the representation of a reality can establish social roles and disposition distributions, constitute common beliefs, besides building a code of “good behavior”. BACZKO⁸ expanded the issue arguing:

Social imaginary is, in this way, one of the strength that regulates collective life. The symbolic references are not limited to indicate those individuals that belong to a society, but also define somehow the intelligible means of their relation with it, with the internal divisions and social institutions […] The social imaginary is, also, a piece an effective and efficient dispositive of collective life control and, in especial, of exercise of authority and power. At the same time, it becomes the site and object of social conflicts (p.309-10).

Due to the media “status”, in contemporary society, the social existence of events is conditioned to the media exposition. According to BORELLI⁶:

In general, it is not possible to talk about an event out of medias. It is, there is only an event if it is public, if there is an offer of senses, mediated by communication media, to public opinion. So, the expression used is “media event”. The facts occurred every day, but that are not showed by media become only occurrences and not events (p.3).

If the “media event” mediated to society can influence directly in ways of thinking, feeling and acting of people, fact that BORDIEU¹¹ called the performative function of discourse, it´s crucial to analyze the content of the discourses, because the dominant representation towards bodies, behaviors and activities that are permissible exclusively to men and women can be being resized or expanded in and through media, acting in the maintenance of a sexist social imaginary. In this sense, SOUZA and KNIJNIK⁹ affirmed that visibility, approach, description and unequal analysis of sports man and women is a recurrent in Brazilian sports media.

Sport, soccer and sports media

Throughout history, sport has been legitimized as one of the most significant events of contemporary society¹². According to ELIAS and DUNNING¹³, sport played a civilizing role in global culture, specifically when it regulated violence in warrior physical activities, configuring them in practices relatively less violent, since the opponents solve their divergences under rules respected by both parties.

GOELLNER¹⁴ portrayed that currently sport is a phenomenon of huge coverage and visibility. In function of its social importance it develops itself daily in cities, awakening “[…] people’s interests, mobilizing passions, invoking feelings, creating body representations […] convoking our immediate participation (p.361). Realizing the significance of sport in Brazilian society, DA MATTA¹⁵ affirmed that:

Sport is part of society, as society is also part of sport. It is impossible to understand an activity (or a plan of activities), without referring to the totality it is inserted. Sport and society are like two sides of the same coin and not like the roof and foundation (p.23).

RUBIO and SIMÕES¹⁶ corroborated and completed DA MATTA¹⁵ assumptions, affirming that sport is “[…] a screen where the cultural levels of each society in which it is practiced are projected, reproducing its hierarchical system and also its social peculiarities” (p.51). In such a way that it can be said that sexism was transposed into the sports field, limiting women participation in some specific modalities, as, for example, in soccer. Even though that through historical periods they have achieved the legal participation is sport, raising significantly the insertion in this field and practically equalizing in numeric terms the masculine gender in the dispute of competitive events, their condition of access, participation and exposition in media never were and are not yet so equitable in relation to men^14,17.

According to BORELLI⁶, both sport and media have an unmatched relevance in people’s lives. To the author, sport is one of the biggest mass phenomenon of actuality, and has a relevant role in identity constitution, in practices and cultural values. Concurrently, the media is the field where occurs the production, scheduling and mediating of the subjects that are considered relevant by society.

Sport has been legitimized in the media, achieving a specific editorial that occupies a significant space in a variety of newspaper forms comparing to other themes approached. BORELLI¹⁸ highlighted this privileged “status” of sport in media, arguing that:

In newspapers, sport dwell, as a general rule, the last pages, considered, with the firsts, the most attractive and privileged in journalistic contents. So, it has a different status to the other editorials, because it is broached in special sites. Besides that, the specialized columns have ample prominence. In television, sport is one of the few practices that have a broad space, with a lot of specialized programs. In radio, sports transmissions dominate weekend programming on game days. However, sport doesn´t occupy only during games, but cover a large time, crossing this limit. Over the internet, there newspaper sites, magazines and specialized organs that have many links to subjects related to sports, occupying also a large space in global web (p.9).

In this way, one perceives how the interrelation between sport and media is import for society, since most people only obtain sports information through its vehicles. According to HELAL¹⁹ and SOUZA and KNIJNIK⁹, the interrelation between these two fields is so important that both coexist in a universe where one doesn´t make sense without the other, because “media sells sport” and “sport sells media”, resulting in a mutual economic benefit⁹.

KNIJNIK and SOUZA²⁰ pointed out that polarized gender representations always find in sports field a fertile land to express themselves. Representations that were resized with the advent of “[…] global medias and the penetration of sport into them as one of the principle attractive of audience” (p.194). According to the authors, the visibility provided by media to sport seems to be the ideal panorama for reaffirming dominant norms and traditions about men and women.

As the (re)estructuration of social imaginary related to masculine and feminine gender results from the representations that are built in the relation among people and social institutions, among them influent media, becoming of importance the verifying and analysis of the productions that have been (and, are) mediated by it. SOUZA and KNIJNIK²¹ verified quantitatively the production in the Folha de S.Paulo sports sections, from August 26th to September 9th of 2002, concluding that from 387 reports, 315 (81,39%) were about masculine sports, 55 (14,21%) feminine and 17 (4,39%) weren’t about any one particular gender.

KNIJNIK and SOUZA²⁰ verified how men and women have been described by Brazilian sports media. For that, they used clippings from four big media vehicles, Folha de S.Paulo, Estadão, Veja e Superinteressante, achieving the following results: a) The modalities that required features historically associated to masculinity, violence, aggressiveness, insensibility, strength and resistance are designed as practices proper to men; b) In modalities associated to feminine corporal feature, women are described as unbeatable. Athlete bodies are also strongly emphasized in relation to their sports qualities; c) The uniforms that let players more attractive, technical mistakes, weakness and their families are highlighted; d) In contrast, male players usually have the athletic abilities, idol/ hero “status”, personality and overcoming adversity as variables portrayed more often.

The clippings used in this study show that quantitatively and qualitatively, Brazilian media produces different representations about sports men and women. But, among all the modalities disposed on Brazilians sports field, soccer is, undoubtedly, the one that has a more social significance. According KNIJNIK²², soccer is a Brazilian’s pride. A modality so important for people that it is capable of stopping the country, being “[…] absolutely imbricate at the heart of many national cultures […]” and is “[…] a constituent and symbolic part of cultural manifestation from north to south of the country” (p.8).

GIGLIO¹ supported by Clifford Gerts theory affirmed that a large part of Brazilian society revels itself through soccer game. The social transformation occurred during the period of World Cup, as the integration of green and yellow in daily habits and the work off on games days, were used to demonstrate national passion for soccer. Passion that passes on at every generation by social imaginary. According to the author, maybe this is the reason for such an intense relationship among soccer, media and society. A process so diffused that even someone who doesn’t like soccer ends up having to live with this sport.

According ESCHER and REIS²³, soccer is preponderant in publications of sports sections, specific virtual sites and television programs. However, this visibility drastically inverts when added the “feminine” connotation to soccer. In this way, it is possible to affirm that the soccer field is one of the social sites that provides continuously a huge inequality in representations, treatment and opportunities offered to men and women. Besides this, it has been an effective mechanism of production and (re)production of masculine and feminine gender antagonism²⁴, that are expanded and resized by media.

Gender inequality in soccer divulged by media

Many examples could be used to express the prejudice and discrimination suffered by the feminine gender in soccer. However, it was chosen to work with the events that were highlighted in media. Yet even before this, it is important to conceptualize gender. In this study, it is understood as a social variable and not a biological one. It corroborates SCOTT’s²⁴ interpretation, North- American historian and feminist, for whom gender is a form of indicating cultural constructions, that is to say, both creations entirely socials of ideas about proper, propitious, possible and acceptable to men and women as feminine and masculine symbols, senses, norms and actions.

In this sense, SCOTT²⁴ was categorical when defining that the central nucleus of the definition of gender concept is based on the integral connection of two propositions: 1. “[…] a constitutive element of social relations based on perceived differences between sexes”; 2. A “primary way of signifying the relationships of power” (p.21). Through these propositions of the author, gender is understood as a social coating imposed in a sexed body; a dialectical articulation between the individual and society’s fields in a constituent context of power structures, of dispositions and unequal relations between men and women, with the possibility of perpetuating or change historically.

By way of examples, it is worth it to underline that in September of 2001, the Federação Paulista de Futebol (FPF) reedited the regional feminine championship of this modality. The event received a large media spotlight, being live televised in opened channels and covered by the main newspapers of São Paulo (SP). However, women had to frame in some conditions to take part of the selective process because FPF credited beauty as a fundamental requirement in the selection process^c to dispute the championship²⁵. Athletes should have long hairs, wear make-up and have the age range established (16-23 years). According KNIJNIK and VASCONCELOS²⁶, this requirements occurred probably because the “[...] images of the younger ones are more easily eroticized by media in general” (p.77).

In August of 2003, it was the initiative of Confederação Brasileira de Futebol (CBF) of convoking for the Brazilian national team that was finishing its preparation for the Mundial - 2003, Milene Domingues, player, model and tv presenter, that stirred controversy in the tract with feminine soccer. A number of versions were disseminated over media about the convoking criterions²⁷, but Paulo Gonçalves, team coach, confirmed after some days of the occurred that this action had the objective of garnering a larger visibility for this modality through Milene’s admirable beauty and esthetic²⁸. In the midst of many polemics, she was maintained in the group that disputed the United States World Cup²⁹. According to MOURÃO and MOREL³⁰, the marital tie with Ronaldo “fenômeno” was also primordial for the “marketing”.

In this way, if the significance or (in)significance of “soccers” and the antagonizing of genders are structured in social imaginary and if this is used in the transmission of generational values, it becomes fundamental studying the relation between its feminine version and sports media, the latter a mechanism capable of influencing representations internalized by people.

Method

To reach the objective of this study it was opted to adopt the method of Content Analysis that has BARDIN³¹ as its principal exponent. Following its guidelines, firstly it was defined that the empirical material would be Folha de S.Paulo. In a second moment, after establishing contact with the press pages of the newspaper through a fluctuating reading of its content, it was delimited the sports editorial as de analytical “corpus”. In the third moment, hypothesis and objectives of the research, indicated in the introduction of this study, were established.

Delimitating the study

Since theses initial definitions obtained the publications presents in the sports editorial of Folha de S.Paulo, in the period of January, 1st and 31st, December of 2011, using the newspaper website^d and the key-word “team”, obtaining a total of 37 reports. This choice of this temporal goal was done due to the correspondence with the year of the sixth edition of the main soccer competition, the Germany World Cup^e. This period allowed the quantitative and qualitative verification and analysis in different moments (before, during and after the competition), allowing to realize the visibility that the newspaper gave in its sports editorial to feminine soccer. In this sense, it was considered the reports that approached or made some allusion to Brazilian team.

The decision for Folha de S.Paulo considered both its capacity to reach Brazil’s population³² as its significance and influence in the country. Actually this is the most read Brazilian newspaper among the general interests, with, according to the data of April of 2015 of Instituto Verificador de Circulação (IVC), an average circulation of 351.917 copies.

Instrumentation and statistic

After finishing the collection of empirical material, the fourth moment was the transcriptions of the reports concomitant to the definition of the register unities (UR) and the context unities (UC). During this process, some themes such as Brazilian team, players, coaches and others^f emerged naturally from the transcript texts and become part of the UR. Consequently, it was defined that the body of the reports would be the UC.

It was taken in consideration the UR that had a minimum frequency of two appearances. While implementing the grouping of the commons characters, it was chosen to use the themes as the general title of the category. So, all the UR that were about feminine players were grouped in the category “feminine player(s)”, as when it refers to “Brazilian Team”, “technical” and others. These categories enabled the verification; interpretation and the analysis of the discursive content of the reports about feminine selection present the sports pages of Folha de S.Paulo during the year of 2011. The frequency of the report publications was made by a percentage calculation.

Results and discussion

In conformity with the data obtained through a national bibliography that approaches the relationship among soccer, media and feminine gender and corroborating with the main hypothesis raised in this research, this sample of twelve months of coverage of Folha de S.Paulo sports editorial showed the low periodicity/visibility that the newspaper gave to the feminine Brazilian team. From January 1st and December 31st of December it was found thirty seven (37) reports published about the team (TABLE 1).

TABLE 1
Number of reports and monthly average about the total found between January and December of 2011.

Months	Femine Brazilian Team Reports (2011)	Average of reports per month(%)
January	1	2.70
February	1	2.70
March	1	2.70
April	0	0
May	5	13.51
June	2	5.41
July	14	37.84
August	1	2.70
September	0	0
October	9	24.32
November	0	0
December	3	8.11
Total	37	100

• Source: The authors.
• The following numerical results are resulting of a statistic analysis.

According KINIJNIK and VASCONCELLOS²⁶, the invisibility of feminine soccer in media is related to the insertion of women in fields considered exclusively of masculine gender. In this sense, the author exposed that for the feminine demand that acts in modalities which men domains is unquestionable, the prejudice and discriminatory barriers are much sharper. They exemplify the issue by showing that even though soccer is a part of the national culture and women soccer players are harvesting great results in the disputed competitions, they are practically invisible in media, and, consequently, to the public.

Dealing with the invisibility of feminine soccer in the vehicles of national media, among them Folha de S.Paulo, JORGE³³ didn’t expose the reasons for the maintenance of the situation in the present, only launched the question: Is this modality practically ignored because of the lack of public interests or there is no interest in response to the negligible covering? If, as affirmed BORELLI⁶, sports media implements publications about the modalities that enjoys significance in society, we can consider that feminine soccer has not acquired yet representativeness for most of Brazilians. “Status” that, according to GABRIEL³⁴, can be changed with the conquest of relevant titles, as the World Cup and Olympic Games.

Other aspect observed and that confirmed the second hypothesis refers to the major seasonal visibility of the Brazilian team in the period of Germany World Cup, that is, in June 26th and July 17th of 2011. In this year the Brazilian team also disputed the Pan-American Games, between October 14th and 30th, in Mexico and the “Torneio Internacional da Cidade de São Paulo”, in Brazil, between December 8th and 18th. Not considering the preparation period for the Mundial (May), it´s possible to affirm that the visibility of feminine soccer is conditioned to the moments during the competitions, representing 67,57% of the total effected in 2011 (TABLE 2).

TABLE 2
Number of reports published in the period of the competition and the percentage over the total value.

Competition	June/July	October	December	Percentual over the total the reports(37)
World Cup	13	-	-	35.14
Pan-American	-	9	-	24.32
Torneio Internacional Cidade de São Paulo	-	-	3	8.11
Total	13	9	3	25 - 67.57%

• Source: The authors
• It’s considered the reports published since the first day until the ending of the competition.

Analyzing the publications about feminine soccer in the O Globo, Jornal dos Sports and Jornal do Brasil, between 1970 and 2008, ALMEIDA³⁵ observed that the reports related to the modality rose considerably before and during the competitions. Soon after there was a drastic decrease, and, many times, there weren´t any publications. According to the author, the media invisibility was recurrent to the years that there weren´t any championships dispute.

MARTINS and MORAES³⁶ analyzed the contents (images, photos and writing) published about feminine soccer in the months before and during Atenas Olympic Games - 2004, in the newspapers Estadão and Folha de S.Paulo. In the months of May and June, these periodicals published five insertions together. In August, there were a plethora of publications, 64 in total, being 29 in Estadão and 34 in Folha de S.Paulo. The authors opted not to analyze the months after the finish of the competition. Nonetheless, while verifying that the images and texts always referring to Brazilian tem in dispute, got into the hypothesis that “[…] ending the championship, ends also the attention given to women in this sport” (p.75).

ALMEIDA³⁵ also argued that in general the lack of information about feminine soccer is observable in all national media vehicles, what ratifies its insignificance and low visibility in society. According to the author, the social status of the modality does not change even in the moments when a lack of sponsorship and institutional support was overcame, and the Brazilian team achieves medals and relevant positions to the main soccer competitions.

The discourses of UC of the emergent categories of the empirical material allowed the finding that the representations built and shown by the sports editorial of Folha de S.Paulo about feminine team affirm the third hypothesis of this study. Concerning to the collective of the national team, the newspaper focused on the preparation, training, results, competitions, technical, tactic, victories, social significance, structure and the comparison to the soccer team:

Favorite and with the best of world in field, feminine team prepares itself to German Mundial practically in anonymity.

It’s the year of World Cup. Brazil is one of the favorites and the team is already training in Granja Comary, in Teresópolis (RJ). But there is neither journalists nor fans following the preparation of the national team.

In June 29th, the team premieres in Feminine Mundial in German, in sixth edition of the competition organized by Fifa, against Australia, in Mönchengladbach. But most of people do not know that. The country that in 2010, in Africa, quit watching Dunga team bearably know who the technique of the feminine team. [...]

Shall be 16 teams. From South America, besides Brazil, Colombia and Argentina also will dispute. In Europe, countries like England, Norway and German, and also in United States, the expectations around the teams are larger than in national territories.

In Teresópolis, it couldn’t have more tranquility for Brazilian athletes. The opposite frisson cause by Dunga fans, during the preparation in Curitiba for World Cup of 2010.

Divisor

Equaling numbers and amounts of men soccer, in Brazil, indeed sounds like an inglorious battle for women. However, the girls’ team have been more well receive by Brazilians, motivated by the generation of the world-famous Marta, 25, elected the best of the world five times, Brazils hope for the Cup.

Having the best player of the world and being one of the favorites to the title it has not been enough to attract the attention of Brazilian public […]

Gala exhibitions, routs and Pan-American titles helped too. However, it is missing a major conquest, like Olympic Games or World Cup, to put feminine soccer in Brazil in evidence³⁷ (p.D8).

After ending the practically invisible preparation, Brazil initiated a search for the World Cup title that, as pointed REIS³⁷, could provide “evidence” to feminine soccer in society and sports media. The country won against Australia (1 x 0), Norway (3 x 0) and Equatorial Guinea (3 x 0) respectively in the first phase. However, in quarterfinal lost for United States (5 x 4 in penalties), being eliminated of the competition. In the day after Brazilian elimination, Folha de S.Paulo published a report arguing that:

The feminine team lost as always, but played ugly as never before.

In one of the most painful lost of its history, Brazil was eliminated by penalties against USA, eternal tortures, on the final-quarters of the German Cup, in yesterday afternoon [July 10th], in Dresden.

The fall was a punishment for whom was most part of the game with one more athlete and was winning until the 17 minutes of second-half of extra-time, when conceded an equalizer goal in generalized fail of defense.

But it was also a punishment for a team that was used to exhibit an exuberant soccer and that, in this Mundial, opted for the pragmatic game, ugly, with strong kicks and little inspiration.

Neither Marta, with her two goals, nor Cristiane with all her will, or Érika almost impeccable on defense, could take ahead the Brazilian team, that another time fell and keep without a big conquest.

The villain this time is the defender Daiane, that yesterday did a own goal, failing on the second attempative of USA and lost the single Brazilian penalty.

But the defeat can be related to several conditionals: if Daiane didn’t fail, if Marta and Cristiane hadn’t lost the chances of counterattack, if Érika didn’t stalled at the end, if the goalkeeper Andréia reached the ball, if the American Hope Sole didn’t shine so much³⁸.

As can been seen, the covering of the Brazilian team defeat was very proximal to the ones when the agent is the masculine team. In the first part, REIS³⁸ criticized, referring to the technical and tactical aspects, the collective performance of Brazil through the competition and in the game against United States. On the second part, in contradiction to the first, he affirmed that the result was the product of the punishment of soccer for Brazilians, pointing many elements that justified the national defeat and among them elected the defender Daiane as the main one, calling her “villain”.

According to HELAL¹⁹, the usage of justifying elements not related to the technical and tactic superiority of opponents is recurrent in sports media covering on masculine defeat on the World Cups. FREITAS JUNIOR^39-40 besides corroborating with the argument, denominated this feature as “excuse culture”, a web woven by press professionals that through the history of World Cups tried to justify or explain the several Brazilian soccer defeats. Justifications and explanations that, as affirmed COSTA⁴¹, have the villain as one of the possibilities since 1950.

The players also were described by the prizes, good performances on game and the soccer “status”. A report published in March 8th, International Women’s Day, is a good example of that. Let’s see:

That the International Women’s Day serve to remind that lately it has been much better cheer for women than men… even in soccer.

Dynamic duo going to London-12: Luis Fabiano and Robinho? Ronaldinho and Pato? Robinho and Pato? None of the duo attack of the team were better than Marta and Cristiane. Indeed, no men plays more with 10 in Brazil than Marta in years…⁴² (p. D7).

It is interesting to observe the enhancement discourse for both soccer players, especially Marta, because chauvinism is still present in Brazilian society. The disposition that expanded in a subfield (soccer) structured with masculine and masculinizing values, normally implies in a resistance to behaviors that incentive and/or value women in social fields, especially in situations comparative to men. Realizing that, it is believed that, as argued GABRIEL³⁴, competence is one of the main elements to fight prejudice, even though it does not eradicate it.

In this context, it wasn’t observed in the sports editorial of Folha de S.Paulo the use of corporal image to “sensationalize” the players of the feminine Brazilian team. According to FERRETTI et al.⁴³, this media construction is always lower in soccer than in other modalities, as, for example, beach volleyball. The justification present by the authors is that the soccer clothing that doesn’t enhance the athletic body forms and the lack of similarity of them with an European stereotype. However, it’s worth mentioning that Folha de S.Paulo website opened a voting to elect “Cup Muse” and the contenders got a full-page on the newspaper - the right-back Maurine was Brazil’s representative⁴⁴.

FIGURE 1
Muse Cup election.

Source: Folha de S.Paulo. Newspaper impress paper presenting the candidates to muse in Germany World Cup⁴⁴.

Thus, differently of what was observed by MOURÃO and MOREL³⁰, MARTINS and MORAES³⁶, FERRETTI et al.⁴³ and SALVINI and MARCHI JUNIOR⁴⁵ in their respective researches that analyzed the media covering of feminine soccer in other communication vehicles, there weren’t visualized mentions about the athletes as less feminine, fragility and corporal masculinization of players, compassions that denigrates women in relation to men, disfigurement of soccer as a feminine possibility and overblown attention to models on grass. These observations associated to an unprecedented temporal analysis, reverberate the originality and relevance of this study in relation to other qualified productions in existence, besides its contribution to this research area, specifically the one who establish relations between soccer and women as a scientific object, because it seems that sports media has been modifying the qualitative approaches offered to the feminine version of this modality.

However, it was noticed that the process of modification of social representativeness that feminine soccer wants to incorporate has been slow, seasonal and without linearity. In social imaginary, it still reverberates the representation of this modality as an activity proper to men, because it raises historical features associated to masculine gender, as strength, speed, virility and rudeness.

The media discourse represents a part of reality, composed by the specificity of it mechanisms. Consequently, associated to the power achieved in contemporaneity, it is not possible to ignore that media constructions exert a strong influence in the social imaginary, that is subjacent to the ways of thinking, feeling, acting and living of Brazilians.

In this sense, with the results obtained in this study, it is possible to affirm that even if the visibility is still quite antagonistic, the sports editorial of Folha de S.Paulo did a covering of feminine National team close to the masculine version, making use of technical and tactical analysis of the games. There weren’t prejudiced approximations and in some moments, the qualities of the players were very exalted, especially Marta’s, recognized by the newspaper as a superior agent to the players of masculine team of last time.

This recognition influences positively in the social imaginary related to feminine soccer. However, it is very intriguing the fact that this disposition isn’t compatible to the structural and social reality of the modality, that suffers with the state’s and media’s disregard, among them Folha de S.Paulo itself.

The newspaper discourse evidenced this aspect clearly, showing that for the “national” imaginary, feminine soccer still is a modality practically insignificant. Insignificance that was reverberated by the low frequency of reports published about the feminine national team in 2011, year of the Germany World Cup.

Referências

• ¹
  Giglio SS. Futebol: mitos, ídolos e heróis [dissertação]. Campinas(SP): Universidade Estadual de Campinas; 2007.
• ²
  Silva SR. A construção social da paixão no futebol. In: Jocimar D, organizador. Futebol, cultura e sociedade. Campinas: Autores Associados; 2005. p.21-52.
• ³
  Guedes SL. Subúrbio: celeiro de craques. In: Damatta R, organizador. Universo do futebol: esporte e sociedade brasileira. Rio de Janeiro: Pinakotheke; 1982. p.59-74.
• ⁴
  Helal R, Murad M. Alegria do povo e Don Diego: reflexões sobre o êxtase e a agonia de heróis de futebol. Pesq Campo. 1995;1:63-79.
• ⁵
  Coimbra MCB. Mídia e produção de modos de existência. Psicologia: Teoria Pesq. 2001;17:1-4.
• ⁶
  Borelli V. Cobertura midiática de acontecimentos esportivos: uma breve revisão de estudos. 24o Intercom; 3 set-7 2001; Campo Grande, BR. Campo Grande: UNIDERP/UCDB/UFMS; 2001. p.15.
• ⁷
  Berge PL, Luckmann T. A Construção social da realidade: um livro sobre a sociologia do conhecimento. 2a ed. Lisboa: Dina Livro; 2004.
• ⁸
  Baczko B. A Imaginação social. In: Leach E, et al., organizadores. Anthropos-Homem. Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional/Casa da Moeda; 1985. p.296-332.
• ⁹
  Souza JSS, Knijnik JD. A mulher invisível: gênero e esporte em um dos maiores jornais diários do Brasil. Rev Bras Educ Fís Esporte. 2007;21:35-48.
• ¹⁰
  Sanchez Teixeira MC. Imaginário e cultura: a organização do real. In: Sanchez Teixeira MC, Porto MRS, organizadores. Imaginário, cultura e educação. São Paulo: Plêiade; 1999. p.13-27.
• ¹¹
  Bourdieu P. A economia das trocas lingüísticas: o que falar quer dizer. São Paulo: EDUSP; 1998
• ¹²
  Castellani Filho L. Esporte e mulher. Motrivivência. 1989;2:87-92.
• ¹³
  Elias N, Dunning E. A busca da excitação. Lisboa: Difel; 1992.
• ¹⁴
  Gollner SV. Mulher e esporte no Brasil: fragmento de uma história generificada. In: Simões SC, Knijnik JD, organizadores. O mundo psicossocial da mulher no esporte: comportamento, gênero, desempenho. São Paulo: Aleph; 2004. p.359-73.
• ¹⁵
  Damatta R. Esporte na sociedade: um ensaio sobre o futebol brasileiro. In: Damatta R, organizador. Universo do futebol: esporte e sociedade brasileira. Rio de Janeiro: Pinakotheke; 1982. p.19-41.
• ¹⁶
  Rubio K, Simões AC. De espectadoras a protagonistas: a conquista do espaço esportivo pelas mulheres. Movimento. 1999;5:61-70.
• ¹⁷
  Goellner SV. Mulheres e futebol no Brasil: entre sobras e visibilidades. Rev Bras Educ Fís Esporte. 2005;19:143-51.
• ¹⁸
  Borelli V. O esporte como uma construção específica no campo jornalístico. 25o Intercom; 1 set-5 2002; Salvador, BR. Salvador: UFBA; 2002. p.22.
• ¹⁹
  Helal R. Mídia, construção da derrota e o mito do herói. Motus Corporis. 1998;5:141-55.
• ²⁰
  Knijnik JD, Souza JSS. Diferentes e desiguais: relações de gênero na mídia esportiva brasileira. In: Simões AC, Knijnik JD, organizadores. O mundo psicossocial da mulher no esporte: comportamento, gênero, desempenho. São Paulo: Aleph; 2004. p.191-212.
• ²¹
  Souza JSS, Knijnik JD. Duas semanas de cobertura esportiva da Folha de São Paulo analisadas sob a ótica de gênero. 26o Intercom; 2003; Minas Gerais, BR. Minas Gerais: UFMG; 2003. p.1-10.
• ²²
  Knijnik JD. Femininos e masculinos no futebol brasileiro [tese]. São Paulo(SP): Universidade de São Paulo; 2006.
• ²³
  Echer TA, Reis HHR. Os supostos espaços de discussão futebolística na televisão: as “mesas redonda”. Rev Bras Cienc Esporte. 2012;34:185-96.
• ²⁴
  Scott J. Gênero: uma categoria útil para análises históricas. In: Ávila MB, Dabat CR, tradutoras. Gender and the politics of history. Recife: SOS Corpo; 1995.
• ²⁵
  Arruda E. FPF institui jogadora-objeto no Paulista. Folha de S.Paulo. 16 set. 2001: Esporte, Futebol:D5.
• ²⁶
  Knijnik JD, Vasconcellos, EG. Sem Impedimento: o coração aberto das mulheres que calçam chuteiras no Brasil: In: Cozac J, organizador. Com a cabeça na ponta da chuteira: ensaios sobre a psicologia do esporte. São Paulo: Annablume; 2003. p.75-89.
• ²⁷
  Seleção chama ‘embaixadinha’ de Milene. Folha de S.Paulo. 28 ago. 2003; Esporte, Futebol:D3.
• ²⁸
  Rangel S. Milene vira ‘barbie’ na seleção. Folha de S.Paulo. 3 set. 2003; Esporte: D1.
• ²⁹
  Rangel S. Fora de forma e dos planos, Milene está inscrita no Mundial dos EUA. Folha de S.Paulo. 9 set. 2003; Esporte:D4.
• ³⁰
  Mourão L, Morel M. As narrativas sobre o futebol feminino: o discurso da mídia impressa em campo. Rev Bras Cienc Esporte. 2005;26:73-86.
• ³¹
  Bardin L. Análise de conteúdo. Lisboa: Edições 70; 1977.
• ³²
  Pontes FS, Silva G. Mídia noticiosa como material de pesquisa: recursos para o estudo de produtos jornalísticos. In: Bourguignon JA, Oliveira Junior CR, organizadores. Pesquisa em ciências sociais: interface, debates e metodologias. Ponta Grossa: Todapalavra; 2012. p.29-77.
• ³³
  Jorge MP. Futebol, sangue, suor e machismo. Folha de S.Paulo. 13 jun. 2015; Esporte:B14.
• ³⁴
  Gabriel BJ. A cobertura acerca da seleção brasileira de futebol feminino realizada pelo caderno de esporte da Folha de S.Paulo (1991-2011) [dissertação]. Ponta Grossa(PR): Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa; 2015.
• ³⁵
  Almeida RS. Futebol feminino no Brasil: memória e discursos da mídia impressa. 9o Seminário Internacional Fazendo Gênero; 23 ago-26 2010; Florianópolis, BR. Florianópolis: UFSC; 2010. p.8.
• ³⁶
  Martins LT, Moraes L. O Futebol feminino e sua inserção na mídia: a diferença que faz uma medalha de prata. Pensar Prát. 2007;10:69-81.
• ³⁷
  Reis L. Tem Copa? Folha de S.Paulo. 8 mai 2011; Esporte:D8.
• ³⁸
  Reis L. Sem título sem arte? Folha de S.Paulo. 11 jul. 2011; Esporte:D2.
• ³⁹
  Freitas Junior MA. No meio do caminho: tensões presentes nas representações sobre o futebol e o ideal de modernidade brasileira na década de 1950 [tese]. Curitiba(PR): Universidade Federal do Paraná; 2009.
• ⁴⁰
  Freitas Junior MA. Copa do Mundo de 1950: a cultura da desculpa como justificativa de um fracasso. In: Freitas Junior MA, Capraro, AM, organizadores. Passe de letra: crônica esportiva e sociedade brasileira. Ponta Grossa: Vila Velha; 2012. p.118-47.
• ⁴¹
  Costa LM. A trajetória da queda: as narrativas da derrota e os principais vilões da seleção brasileira em Copas do Mundo [tese]. Rio de Janeiro(RJ): Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro; 2008.
• ⁴²
  Viva a elas. Folha de S.Paulo. 8 mar. 2011; Esporte:D7.
• ⁴³
  Ferretti MAC, Zuzzi RP, Viana AES, Vilha Junior FM. O futebol feminino nos Jogos Olímpicos de Pequim. Motriz. 2011;17:117-27.
• ⁴⁴
  Musa da copa feminina. Folha de S.Paulo. 12 jul. 2011; Esporte:D10.
• ⁴⁵
  Salvini L, Marchi Júnior W. Notoriedade mundial e visibilidade local: o futebol feminino na revista Placar da década de 1990. Sociol Plurais. 2013;1:144-59.
• ⁴⁶
  Betti M. A janela de vidro: esporte, televisão e educação física. 2a ed. Campinas: Papirus; 2003.

• a
  . As argue BETTI, medias are understood both the electronic vehicles of communication (television, radio, movies, internet, etc) as the pressed ones (newspapers, magazines, etc) which have similar and distinctive structures.
• b
  . It was chosen this orthography because it corresponds to the indicated by the manual of Folha de S. Paulo newspaper.
• c
  . In soccer it is used the expression “peneira” to the selection process done by the clubs to get new players for its basic categories or even for the constitution its professional teams.
• d
  . The website “Folha online” make available the press versions of the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo since its first edition, dated of January 1st of 1960.
• e
  . This event happened between June 26th and July 17th of 2011.
• f
  . The reports that approach more than one thematic were embedded in the category “others”.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  Apr-Jun 2016

History

• Received
  17 Feb 2014
• Reviewed
  30 July 2015
• Accepted
  06 Aug 2015