Masculinity and whiteness in the construction of the Brazilian Republic

Sexual discipline and whitening of the population were the guidelines of the conservative modernization promoted by the elite, affirms study.

By José Tadeu Arantes

Agência FAPESP – Masculinity and whiteness were the ideals of the Brazilian elite at the end of the 19th century — ideals that represented rejection of Brazil’s colonial and monarchical past and the mixed-race heritage of its people and defining a model of sexual discipline and whitening on which to build the Brazil of the future.

From the perspective of this elite, which was at once conservative and modern, the past and the people were associated with nature, instincts and backwardness. The model that inspired the elite was the idealized portrait of more developed countries in Europe and the United States. That idea is the main thread of the book “The Desire of a Nation” by Richard Miskolci, professor in the Department of Sociology at the Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar) and coordinator of the study group “Bodies, Identities and Subjectivations,” which brings together several Brazilian universities.

The book, which was the result of post-doctoral studies at the University of Michigan in 2008 and a FAPESP Research Grant, also received funding from FAPESP for publication. The book explores how the desires and fears of this elite promoted the transition from a monarchy to a republic and the conservative modernization of the country.

“It investigated the national ideas running against the grain through analysis of the specters that haunted our elite: from fear of Negros, which after abolition became a fear of common people, to sexual anxieties and gender, which threatened the project of building a nation based on the idealized image of Europe,” commented Miskolci, who is currently a visiting professor at the Department of Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

“These specters were the base of the creation of a very Brazilian model of modernity: authoritative and discriminatory. I sought to demonstrate that, despite secondary divergences, the modernizing elite converged on the idealization of a nation based on a paradigm of whitening and compulsory reproductive heterosexuality. The explicitation of the supposed threats to this ideal allow us to better understand the historical transformations, which a perspective founded solely on rational processes would tend to ignore or minimize,” he said.

To demonstrate his theory, Miskolci collected several political, scientific and journalistic writings of the time, such as the series of articles published in the newspaper A Província de São Paulo by Doctor Luís Pereira Barreto, in which this pioneer of positivism in Brazil terrified his readers with the image of a dangerous “black wave” that abolition would dump onto society: “a horde of semi-barbaric men without direction and without social goals.”

However, Miskolci went beyond explicit ideological documentation and attempted to capture the same hygienistic and disciplinary ideas that swept both the public arena and private life, blurring the lines between the two, through an analysis of three exemplary romance novels of the period: “The Athenaeum (O Ateneu)” by Raul Pompeia; “The Good Negro (Bom Crioulo)” by Adolfo Caminha; and “Dom Casmurro” by Machado Assis.

In his analysis of “Dom Casmurro,” Miskolci subverts the traditional interpretation of the Machado de Assis romance, which is the story of a bitter old man (Bentinho) who is tormented by the memory of an adulterous relationship that his wife (Capitu) had had years ago with his best friend (Escobar). From the point of view of the researcher, the real thread of the romance is the attraction between Bentinho and Escobar. Capitu plays the role of a mediator (a victim and an accomplice at the same time) of this secret and unconfessable erotic desire.

Like other texts by Machado de Assis, “Dom Casmurro” makes veiled and subtle criticisms of this hypocritical social order. “The fact that the attraction between Bentinho and Escobar would most likely never be consummated in sexual terms did not stop it; on the contrary, it contributed to make this a driving force in the life of the protagonist,” affirmed the researcher.

“In the more privileged social levels of the day, marriage became a major societal demand, which associated the respectability of a man with the condition of husband and father. It was an obligation that involved not only economic interest, but also other interests like the need to generate heirs and cover up secrets. Brazilian marriage had its own particular characteristics, like a double standard that allowed men access to other women, as I demonstrated in my analysis, and also to other men. Women had a doubly subordinate role because in addition to obeying their husband, they also had to accept their betrayals,” comments Miskolci.

What are the remnants of all this in Brazil today? Heated contemporary debates, largely played out in social media, show that ethical matters and sexual orientation issues still strongly divide Brazilian society. “The current demands involving human rights show that citizenship has not been universalized in our country, and there are political groups that battle against this possibility,” he comments.

“Women still do not have the right to decide whether or not they want to be mothers; blacks, indigenous people and homosexuals still face difficulties to enjoy their rights,” continued the researcher. “In general, citizenship is more accessible and recognized for the white, wealthy, heterosexual male.” As these characteristics are far from being the majority, Brazil will continue to be, in the famous words of Stephan Zweig, a “land of the future.”