Ms Julia Belas Trindade

This research about the representation of Black players in Brazilian women’s football encompasses history, sociology, media studies, and theories about gender, race, and sexuality in Brazil. As someone who has covered the women’s game for years as a journalist, I wanted to understand how media coverage impacts players, and how these players feel about women’s football coverage in Brazil, especially at a moment when the game grows in attention, investment, and interest. My goal is to speak to former and current Brazil women’s national team players to figure out if there are any differences in how the media represents them according to their race, regional origin, and sexuality. Over the past years, the increased scholarship about women’s football in Brazil has discussed how gender prejudice affects the women’s game, and how women’s football has conquered more space in the media. However, debates about intersectionality, especially considering race, are still rare in Brazilian academia. The main question I will be asking is:

• How do women footballers, especially Black and mixed-race players, feel about the sport’s coverage in Brazil?

I feel women’s football coverage and research has, for too long, focused on universalising players into the category “women”, assuming they are all fighting for the same goals, with the same point of view, therefore neglecting, for example, racism in the women’s game. Still, I believe Black women are not a homogeneous group and the other parts of their identities may also pose a factor in how they are represented by the media. This is why I will also dive into sexuality and regional origin in the country, as I feel these topics may come up in interviews even if I do not ask about them. So, even though the focus of my research will be Black women, I will also try to answer the following questions during my research:

• Is there a difference in how the media portrays women footballers of different races, sexualities, or who are from different regions in Brazil?
• Do players experience or perceive prejudice from the media that covers women’s football?
• How has the media representation of women footballers changed over the years?
• What are women’s football players doing to prepare themselves for an increase in coverage of the women’s game?
• How can the media be more inclusive to diverse social groups while covering women’s football?

My research interests are gender and race theories, languages and sports studies.