Presentation

The articles here, which were presented at the seminar Repensando Gênero e Feminismos [Rethinking Gender and Feminisms], reflect the spirit that has permeated Pagu over the past 20 years and display innovative thinking in the different lines of research at the Pagu Nucleus. This thinking was expressed in the articulation between the incorporation of new research problematics, the formulation of innovative questions and shifts in analytical frameworks. Informed by a critical feminist spirit, this articulation has led to the production of valuable knowledge, situated in the “South” which can and should dialog with equal status with knowledge from other regions of the world. This spirit has led our researchers to establish close relationships with social movements and to interact with various government agencies, to support the formulation of public policies in Brazil.

Considering this political commitment, we began the seminar with two round table discussions about feminisms, materializing another aspect of the spirit of Pagu: the special attention given to young generations, investing in the development of researchers and in “generational repositioning”- it is precisely this investment that allowed us to bring together experienced feminists and young feminists.

Serious questionings were raised at these roundtables about the fact that the Brazilian state has not accepted historic demands that are central to feminism such as the right to abortion. This problematization was combined with readings of the “new feminisms” and critical perceptions about sectors of the movement that exclude the voices of some women. These questionings acquire special value considering the trajectories of the feminist academics who participated in these roundtables, who have been dedicated to working with indigenous women in Latin America; migrants in Spain; Saharawis; women in prison and prostitutes. It should be noted that various participants promoted an articulation between the feminist movement and prostitutes, an approximation that is still not common in Brazil, which contributed to the shift of women who are marginalized in political space. It is not possible to mention the contributions of all of the participants, but we highlight how this articulation between a critical spirit, innovative thinking and political commitment was present in various ways at the two round tables.

Serious questionings were raised during the seminar of perspectives that erase the various dimensions present in sexual, economic and emotional exchanges, by considering them inherently violent and linked to human trafficking, when they involve people of poor regions of the world, who are racialized and sexualized. The effects of the expansion of ideas found in transnational regimes for combatting human trafficking were vigorously problematized, highlighting how they shift attention from aspects that generate poverty and violence in the global economy, and how these regimes, in the case of Brazil, debilitate historic causes of social movements.

Studies about gender and media are still rare in Brazil, but they constitute a significant research field at Pagu. Various studies presented at the seminar creatively showed how articulations between categories of differentiation (gender, sexuality, nationality, “race” and ethnicity) are triggered in various media. At times, these intersections permeate processes of racialization and sexualization that contribute to the production of inequalities. At other times, media like the Internet propitiate sexual encounters, stable relationships and even marriages and in these cases, contribute to the strategic triggering of differences that allow the realization of personal projects. These studies show how the media can open spaces of agency, and can simultaneously be used with various and even opposing political interests.

The studies presented at these discussions also provide us valuable reflections about re-configurations of the conventions of gender and sexuality, considering articulations between pleasure and danger. In the realm of critical reflections about the relationship between science and politics, they call attention to how our work is forced to face terms that were incorporated as native categories in the public debate, for example, consent and vulnerability. And they also call attention to the need to reflect on how our studies have been incorporated (and re-signified) in various public realms, often in a startling manner.

The papers presented also provide reflections about the contributions of intersectional and post-colonial feminist studies to studies of gender, science and technology. In parallel, they raise important criticisms of the processes of academic internationalization and observations about the need to strengthen Latin American integration. Moreover, they raise new questions about science and technology, and about how to think of sexism in scientific production, considering the articulations between gender, sexuality and race.

At this seminar, various studies¹ presented an extraordinarily interesting overview of various dimensions of care in different countries – one of the new lines of research at Pagu. There was also relevant critical questioning of the localization in the global economy of caregivers, who are often migrants; about the policies some governments use to shift the care activities, reallocating them once again to families and mainly to women, and of the perceptions of the beneficiaries of public policies in Brazil.

The fundamental questions about gender in labor relations point to the renovation that these studies produce by introducing the concept of gender, but also by highlighting aspects that still need to be incorporated to attain a full understanding of how the articulation with other categories of differentiation operates in the realm of these relations.

Concluding this presentation we reiterate the words of Antonia Pedroso de Lima, LONGA VIDA AO PAGU! [LONG LIVE, PAGU!], and hope our students and young researchers share this desire. It is up to them to see that Pagu can realize future celebrations, of 30, 40 and many more years.

Adriana Piscitelli
Iara Beleli

• 1
  Articles written based on these studies were published in issue 46 of the journal cadernos pagu.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  2016