Assédio no estádio de futebol: implicações no lazer das torcedoras

Abstract

As the most popular sport in Brazil, football impacts the lives of thousands of people. It is a crucial part of Brazilian culture, but it highlights issues that exist in society, such as gender inequality. From my experience as a football fan who has experienced the reality of a stadium on match days, it always bothered me the differences between men and women, because of that, over time, it instigated me academically.Therefore, the research discusses gender-based violence within the football stadium, specifically harassment, which is a recurrent violence. Although many studies have the stadium or harassment as their subject, there are still few studies that relate harassment to football fans in the stadium. They, who goes looking for a pleasurable leisure experience. So, the research aimed to investigate and analyze the harassment of women in football games at the Mineirão stadium and how it impacts their lives. In detail, the study wanted to find out what measures were taken by the victim and understand how the stadium relates to harassment. With a qualitativequantitative approach, the research was a field study which used two instruments:questionnaires and interviews. The questionnaires had open and closed questions,and were applied to 151 women. It aimed to outline a profile of the volunteers, understand their relationship with football and find out whether they had ever sufferedharassment at Mineirão, which was 46 of 151. Moreover, 12 women agreed to participate in semi-structured interviews to tell more about the harassment. Using categorizations and interview transcriptions, it was evidenced that harassment trulyhappens in Mineirão, especially in the bars. Harassment happens to women with acompany or not, and it does not depend on which sector where she goes. It was also found that women, when harassed, usually do “nothing” after the violence. For her,no reaction would have any effect because this is the reality in the stadium, whichdiscusses how where you are can have a greater sense of belonging for men thanwomen. Among the various manifestations of harassment, sexual was the most recurrent in Mineirão and it was observed that women tend to associate harassmentas only sexual, ignoring other manifestations. As a result, it is questioned if the football stadium is a democratic space, thinking that it relates differently to the each public. Even in this context, women do not stop going to the stadium. To feel safe, they seek strategies, not always effective, such as avoiding wearing short clothes, not walking alone, among others. With this, it can be concluded that the stadium is still a hostile environment for women. Even though they still resist, the sexist logic that that place does not belong to them perpetuates. Legal inefficiency, lack of support and impunity are factors that make it more difficult for fans to have that experience and it encourages the naturalization of harassment in the stadium.