Sunday, February 12, 2012

Lessons We can Learn From Brazilian Women

My parents are from the Caribbean but I was born in Canada. Negative things have been said about Caribbean women too. Negative things were said about Rihanna's being from the Caribbean after that incident with Chris Brown (can't stand him). But I think there are some things we can learn from women who come from tropical places. I watched a few YouTube videos and I've noticed a few things. I have to first state that the women were chosen for the videos because they are beautiful and many are models, so they probably don't typify the average Brazilian or Caribbean woman. But I think it is fair to compare them to American women and models who are considered attractive.



  1. Exotic allure: Anyone looking at these women would say they are "exotic". Some women think exotic is a bad word and don't want it applied to them. But what is wrong with being exotic rather than ordinary? People love exotic foods and traveling to exotic places. Asian and Latina women don't seem to mind being exotic and men sometimes seek them out just because they are different. Some might say the men who prefer exotic women just have a fetish, but isn't it a fetish to like a large chest or backside, or a certain colour of hair or eyes? Does having that fetish matter if a man loves and marries you? Men are attracted to women because of the way they look and some prefer a different look. Sometimes I think people call it a fetish because they can't understand why someone would want an exotic woman and they prefer the standard European look. It's just another way to devalue one of our qualities. Maybe those of us who are from the Caribbean, Africa, or South America should embrace our exotic roots. I personally think anything is better than hip hop fashion.
  2. Carefree attitude: I doubt most people in the tropics are carefree but I'm just referring to the women in the videos. The women in the videos look happy, flirty, carefree, and easy to get along with. They don't look hardened. This is a very feminine quality and it is very attractive. They may have problems but they don't show it or they handle it well. 
  3. Natural hair: Most of the women in the videos have long hair that is also natural. There were many different textures, some hair hung down, some was more puffy, but they all looked beautiful. I LOVE natural hair. Long hair is feminine but so is natural hair. Their hair was very sexy!
  4. Healthy Weight: For some reason the women had really thin arms and waists but large breasts and backsides! It isn't possible to spot reduce so this look may be very difficult for most to achieve. But one thing we can do is exercise and eat healthier so that our waists are smaller. Larger waists are associated with health problems such as diabetes. Notice that many of the dancers had very fit legs and they were not skinny like Western fashion models. They look healthy not underweight. 
  5. Beautiful skin: These women had skin that glows! Some had a biracial look, sometimes with light eyes and skin but there were plenty with dark skin and eyes. The photos were probably touched up too. The lesson for us though is that we need to moisturize, exfoliate, and take good care of our skin. Brown, tan skin just looks baked, ripe, and healthy :)
  6. Stay feminine while dancing. There were several clips of women dancing. Some appeared to be doing Latin dances. They looked very feminine (I know they were barely dressed and you wouldn't wear those outfits everyday). Many hip hop dances (especially crumping...gross) look too hard and masculine. I think reggae dance can be vulgar sometimes too. Try to conduct yourself like a lady when you dance and men will treat you like one. I am not a fan of calypso, reggae, or Latin dance. I might get to like Latin dance and I want to take some kind of dance lessons. I think the dance in the videos is samba...very hot!

11 comments:

  1. hmmmm...some of the dancing in the video is cultural. I see it all the time in the Caribbean (where I'm from) but apart from the cultural dancing I see that alot of the girls are doing the normal vulgar dancing that wouldn't typify an elegant black woman, but rather just the opposite. I feel that the videos took away from your msg.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I hear what you are saying. I think they look feminine when they are doing the cultural dances (even though they aren't wearing much. I'm not encouraging women to go around dressed like that).

    I don't like the booty-shaking at all. But these were the videos I could find. They were made by men who are attracted to Brazilian women so they actually like the booty-shaking. I wish there were videos showing the women looking respectable but I couldn't find any. It was really hard. Most videos about beautiful women show them in bikinis except for the ones about European and Asian women...they get more respect.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I re-watched the videos, and there was only one part in the first one where the woman wasn't doing the samba. There are many different types of dance and I don't think the samba is vulgar. Just imagine women doing it while fully dressed in a ballroom and it won't seem so bad. I'm sure people are trained to do these dances and can wear a gown instead of the skimpy Carnival outfits.

    I don't think that Black women have to abandon cultural dances, we can just try to maintain our dignity and wear more clothes when we do them. I don't place European dance styles above Africa, Caribbean, Latin or any other style...except crumping and booty dancing lol!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous, I don't think she was mentioning the dancing, per se, but the 'sultry feminine seductive spirit' behind the dancing and movement.

    About the asian women getting more respect, maybe, but WW, nope. Askmen.com is a testament to this.

    ReplyDelete
  5. black women are 'built with thick bones/build i'm not using this as an excuse but Brazil is in the top 5 for surgery thats probably why they have large breasts slim waist and big butts and they star them out young.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is true about plastic surgery but it is also true that many women in Brazil have flawless figures. My husband is Brazilian and when I met his sister she had the tiniest waist I'd ever seen and a perfect butt and now years later she is 30 and still has the same figure. She was 16 when I met her. The key? They don't have a car and walk everywhere, they do what we Americans would consider hard labor and even farm her mothers's land for their own fruit and vegetables. She's never been to a gym and they can't afford plastic surgery. They are from the south of Brazil. We go there every two years to visit and I've yet to meet a fat girl. I'm a big girl and every year I freak out trying to lose the weight. They treat me with so much love that I forget all of that when I visit. I realize that when I was young I had a 23 inch waist with a 40 inch hip and I just got lazy. I don't have to walk anywhere and hate going to the gym. Lifestyles here hurt us, not the lack of plastic surgery.

      Delete
  6. Dear Elegance,

    I am glad that you think that brazilian women are an example of EBW!
    Ironically, seeing black women in the brazilian media is something rare, but when we show up, is always as an EBW.

    Samba is a very feminine dance when is danced without the influences of other dances, specially american hip-hop (that's where the booty-shake part in these videos came from). There are many types of samba, and the one shown in these videos are the "samba de avenida" type (avenue samba), that is a very fast paced samba, consequently it's less elegant than the "samba de gafieira" (sorry, it's difficult to translate!), that has a more beautiful general exhibition, specially because you dance it with a partner.
    Samba dance, without negative influences, is very elegant and feminine, and nowadays is rarelly seen during Carnival. You can find it in special samba houses, where there is a code of conduct and a code of dressing that must be respected, so the genuine samba can be found! :) And, don't worry, no one will be dressed in bikinis!

    By the way, in brazilian standards, these women are dressing very respectfully, and I am not being ironic. It's summer, it's making 40o Celcius at night and it's ok to dress a bikini to dance samba, that is an exercise that makes you lose 600 calories per hour! And, ladies, it's Carnival! Even an EBW can have fun! :)
    I wish you could see in these videos the wonderful make up these girls do, and how their bikinis are carefully beaded to look like a treasure piece!
    Yes, they are in bikinis and peacock feathers, but they look and pose like queens!

    And finally, to answer to a malicious and anonymous comment above, yes, Brazil is top 5 in plastic surgery... in WHITE women. Unhappilly, poverty also has a color here. Of course, I am not saying that no black brazilian woman is able to afford a plastic surgery, but is a fact that a great amont of the black brazilian population has no money to do that. So, since only 30% of the brazilian population is white, yes, our beauty is in general very natural. Our big butts are natural (if we do surgery, is to make it look smaller!), our waists are naturally small and our breast... well, they are small compared to american women's breasts! :) At least in the tv they look big and beautiful!

    However, even if all of us in Brazil could afford a cosmetic surgery, why to comment about that as if it was a bad thing? There is a lot of EBW who did plastic surgery to feel more comfortable with themselves, why can't brazilian women do the same? Why would that be a demerit to our beauty?

    Elegance, again, I apologise for my grammar mistakes. As I said in a former post, I am still learning!

    Here, there 2 links to "samba de gafieira". The couple in the first video are professional dancers (and they are dressed like dancers!), but you can notice the diference in the rhythm, the dress code and the behaviour of the dancers compared to the "samba de avenida" dancers. Of course, it already has a ball dance influence (it's an exhibition), but you can have a notion of how elegant and feminine samba can be!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWTF8W94Rtk&feature=related

    In the second one you will find these non professional guys just having fun in a samba house, properly dressed (see? no pants showing, no man in jeans!), and behaving properly, just dancing a beautiful samba.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akoW_IyVqhE&feature=related

    Your brazilian friend,
    Camila

    ReplyDelete
  7. Here we go again... So the 5ft 3, 175 lb Black American woman with the muscular build, Mississippi roots, copper bronze or mahogany skin with hair that resembles Florida Evans' fro is not sexy, feminine or alluring enough... Doesn't matter what a Black woman does... Short of plastic surgery, crash diets and a relaxer and a lace-front wig or WEAVE, we will NEVER look like this. Even the so-called "natural" movement is misleading, because hair care marketers choose women who look like THIS to sell their products... So brandywine-hued sistas will buy it, in hopes they will look like this... We have to be careful about the subliminal messages and images we are sending out... Even if we mean well... This is not healthy.. . Becuase after reading a series of commentary on this blog, the impression that a reader is left with, is that if they don't possess these qualities/traits, they are not feminine, not beautiful, and not worthy of loving, supportive relationships, and NOTHING can be farther from the truth!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous, I don't think this blog is for you. I am too different from you to write from a perspective that would be affirming to you. Perhaps another blog will give you what you are looking for.

    For the record, I look more like the women in the videos than Florida Evans. These things are attainable to some women like myself so I write about them. Good luck to you and I hope that you can find acceptance somewhere else on the vast Internet.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I have a big butt big boobs and a small waist..and have never had surgery. I was just made that way..and I barely exercise.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I just wanted to leave a comment... I am white, but I have two good friends who are African American and whenever they leave their hair natural (curly) I just think it is so beautiful on them! I just thought I would leave that comment because the video made me think of them... I think what makes us individually beautiful as woman are our differences in everything.

    ReplyDelete