Carnival celebrations in Brazil make headlines every year, normally accompanied by photos of samba school muses wearing little more than gems and feathers. But according to anthropologist Mirian Goldenberg, a professor at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, this superficial coverage reinforces stereotypes about Brazilian women both inside and outside of the country.
“Foreigners have an image of Brazilian women that is very much related to Carnival,” she told The Brazilian Report. “But the bodies on display during Carnival are really bodies that are very sculpted, perfect, curvaceous. The image that foreigners see of Brazilians is a very exposed body,...