Lazeres de mulheres negras no sertão baiano: experiências e resistências em diálogo com organizações sociais e políticas em Caetité-BA

Abstract

This study aims to understand and discuss the leisure time of black women, inserted in social and political organizations in the city of Caetité­BA, from an intersectional perspective of analysis. It has a qualitative nature and was carried out through field research by means of a questionnaire and semi­structured interviews. In all, twenty women participate in this research, composing 5 social and political organizations in Caetité­BA, being three social projects (Flor, Esmeralda and Amigos do Bem projects), one social movement (Movimento Negro Unificado) and one dance and art group (as Dandaras). The choice to carry out this study with these women and through these organizations was made because we understand that the potentiality that exists among the strategies of struggle and resistance they carry out, permeate and impact the struggle for access to and appropriation of leisure in different contexts, times, and social spaces. The results of this study show the barriers and challenges overlapped by the markers of gender, race, and class for the enjoyment and access to leisure by the women researched. They point to restrictions and difficulties existing in the conditions of work, income, and education, strongly impacted by racism and sexism, which influence the process of appropriation of basic social rights, such as leisure itself. They also show the limitations regarding leisure spaces and equipment in their neighborhoods, which, for the most part, are located in the outlying regions of the city. All these barriers were considerably aggravated during the Covid­19 pandemic, the period in which this research was conducted. Nevertheless, the results also highlight the constant strategies of struggle and resistance of these women through the actions performed by social and political organizations in which they are inserted, who seek better living conditions for themselves and for the community of Caetiteense in general, which reflects directly on their practices and experiences of leisure. Thus, with this study it was possible to see that the leisure activities of the women who make up this study suffer the impacts of the racist, sexist, and capitalist structure that generates social, economic, educational, political, racial, and gender inequalities, and that are sustained by the negligence of the State itself. These inequalities generate a constant need for confrontation and resistance that has been undertaken by these women in different ways, also considering the potentiality of leisure as an important means to intend social and political changes in Caetiteense society. It is hoped that this study can contribute to and motivate the construction of new researches that focus on the specificities and potentialities of black women in the field of leisure, from an intersectional, antiracist and antisexist perspective. Moreover, it is intended to contribute to the implementation of public policies in this region, which aim to expand and qualify the leisure practices not only of the women who make up this study, but of the population of Caetiteense in general.