Dissonant Bodies and the Struggles Over Urban Space: Narratives About Rio de Janeiro in International Documentaries

Abstract

Physical perfection is one of the most solid imaginary of Brazil and it is currently represented in the form of cisgender white, thin, female bodies that occupy the beaches of the south zone of Rio de Janeiro. It was also an attribute of the brand Rio during the construction of “Olympic city”. This article aims to understand, through a critical analysis of four international television documentaries produced and exhibited by foreign televisions during the so-called “Olympic period”, how the bodies that are dissonant in relation to these imaginaries struggle over urban spaces, the right to the city and to narrate themselves, breaking with the official brand. Despite the diversity of dissonant bodies, three of them gain space in the international media: trans and transvestite women, analyzed in Gaycation: Brazil by Page and Daniel (2016) and Rio 50 Degrees — Carry on Carioca by Temple (2014); black and poor bodies made invisible in urban daily life at Copacabana Palace by Waldron (2014) and people with disabilities who fight for the right to inclusion and mobility in A Bumpy Road to Rio by Fox (2015). Although the representations of these bodies are still small in relation to the solid imaginary of the perfect bodies, their approach contributes to give visibility to subjects made invisible by the city branding process. They also promote an important question in relation to the flattening of subjects and subjectivities that the megaevent strategy ends up imposing, in addition to showing other possibilities of existence, conflicts and disputes over urban space.