Comments on: The Brazil/Africa Capoeira Metaphor: Seeing Through Stereotypes http://mandingueira.com/2008/05/12/the-brazilafrica-capoeira-metaphor-deconstructing-stereotypes/ (noun, feminine): capoeira player who is skilled, experienced, intelligent, powerful, dangerous, and not to be underestimated Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:26:56 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Patrick http://mandingueira.com/2008/05/12/the-brazilafrica-capoeira-metaphor-deconstructing-stereotypes/#comment-1448 Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:41:32 +0000 http://mandingueira.wordpress.com/?p=204#comment-1448 Forces of Manding
The dawn of colonialism, the rise of Samory and the Forces of Manding. As kingdom upon African kingdom fell before the military might of the Colonial French Empire, Manding sounded its thunderous war drums and its armies prepared for war. This is the story of the Mandingo Empire and its triumphant and victorious march into the pages of history.
Forces of Manding includes 98 pages of unprecedented ritual, artifacts, battle tactics, weaponry, traditional uniforms of the period, traditional combat (armed and unarmed), and more..

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Director Patrick Gorham Lanfia Toure
AfricaWrites: Heroes, Rituals & Legends
http://www.africawrites.com

]]> By: Joaninha http://mandingueira.com/2008/05/12/the-brazilafrica-capoeira-metaphor-deconstructing-stereotypes/#comment-1078 Mon, 12 May 2008 20:57:50 +0000 http://mandingueira.wordpress.com/?p=204#comment-1078 Hey Caneta,

Thanks so much for dropping by and checking out my stuff!

Heh…one of my friends’ favourite lines to me is, “you think too much”. :P I suppose I wasn’t worried so much about the political correctness of it though as just wanting to go on record saying I realized the potential discrepancies in what I was saying…so that at least I’d be consistent with myself…if that makes sense! ^^”

]]> By: Caneta http://mandingueira.com/2008/05/12/the-brazilafrica-capoeira-metaphor-deconstructing-stereotypes/#comment-1074 Mon, 12 May 2008 19:42:33 +0000 http://mandingueira.wordpress.com/?p=204#comment-1074 Joaninha, This article was thought provoking. I feel too much emphasis is, in the general world, put upon being politically correct. It sounds quite logical to me to have stated Brazil is the mother of capoeira, in the sense that you stated it. I think of countries as feminine. Much as ships are gendered female. I wouldn’t worry about whether or not you relied upon a stereotype or not. You made a statement that many may or may not agree with. I, for one, woudn’t have even had a second thought.

All in all, your writing is well done and I like the thought process behind your words. i’m going to read your archives.

Axe’

]]> By: Joaninha http://mandingueira.com/2008/05/12/the-brazilafrica-capoeira-metaphor-deconstructing-stereotypes/#comment-1073 Mon, 12 May 2008 15:35:14 +0000 http://mandingueira.wordpress.com/?p=204#comment-1073 Hey Shayna,

Haha, yes it’s more than logical that women are seen as childbearers since that’s actually a physical fact! But childrearing, I’d say, should be something that can be attributed to either gender, so I only mentioned childrearing in the post, rather than childbearing.

You’re right though, about the implying “childrearer” seemed to be equated with background and minor in how I wrote it, and I definitely didn’t mean it that way! Or perhaps I meant to evoke that many people see it that way–even, as you pointed out, other feminists. That is, both men and other women often discount or dismiss the work of stay-at-home mothers or housewives as not doing “real work”, even though they’re raising the generation of tomorrow!

And I also fully agree with what you said about the bottom line being about affirming a woman’s choice, no matter what it is. I think I’ll amend that part in my post, just to avoid future confusion. Thanks for bringing it up!

]]> By: Shayna http://mandingueira.com/2008/05/12/the-brazilafrica-capoeira-metaphor-deconstructing-stereotypes/#comment-1071 Mon, 12 May 2008 14:47:15 +0000 http://mandingueira.wordpress.com/?p=204#comment-1071 Oops, I commented on the previous post before I saw this one.

I’d just like to point out a small technicality though – it IS logical that women are seen as “childbearers” – since they do, in fact, bear children (though, obviously, not without some male contribution :-p) but “childbearer” does not equal “background or minor role.” I know you didn’t actually say this, but I thought it’s worth pointing out. In fact, a pretty good case could be made for the opposite (childbearing/rearing being a more important role than many other endeavors).

Unfortunately in the feminist debate it sometimes gets boiled down to just two options: either “barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen” or “career woman who has ‘risen’ past the inferior role of motherhood” – but I really think the most liberating form of feminism is one that affirms women’s choices whatever they choose to be – maybe it’s being childless, maybe it’s having both a career and kids, maybe it’s having a dozen children and being a housewife, maybe it’s working from home, maybe it’s adopting… the important thing is that none of these choices – either the “modern” one of career-woman or the “traditional” one of housewife – is exalted as the superior choice or denigrated as the inferior choice. All of them should be understood as valuable, and women should be free to choose which path they want to take.

::steps off soapbox:: ;-)

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