RIO DE JANEIRO – Millions of Brazilians grew up watching it on television. Her shows sold out locations in the largest stadiums in Latin America. She had hit movies and songs, dolls, and an amusement park.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Maria da Graça Xuxa Meneghel, known as Xuxa, was Brazil’s top television star. The children spent their mornings watching her sing and dance. “I was a doll, a babysitter and a friend to these children,” said Xuxa, 60. “A Barbie from that time.”
Like the famous doll, Xuxa is also slim, blonde, with white skin and blue eyes. On her show, she wore short skirts and thigh-high boots as she stepped out of a pink spaceship. And just like Barbie, she became an idol for her fans, who grew up wanting to be the same as Xuxa and her teenage dancers, the “Paquitas”.
However, a new documentary series on Xuxa has renewed questions about diversity, beauty standards and sexualization on her show. Many, including Xuxa herself, question whether the narrow ideal that she represented was a positive one in a country with a majority of black races.
“Back then, I didn’t see it as a bad thing,” she said of the standard of beauty she portrayed. “Today we know that it is wrong.”
Brazil is now embracing new definitions of beauty that celebrate natural curls, voluptuous bodies, and darker skin tones.
The lack of black faces in Xuxa shows “inflicted deep wounds on many women in Brazil,” said Luiza Brasil, who has written a book on racism in Brazilian culture.
Then 23 years old, Xuxa got her children’s show in 1986, and it aired six days a week. She brought together about 200 children in a colorful forum that included musical artists, contests and mascots like a mosquito named Dengue.
Xuxa ventured into music and film, selling more than 26 million records and nearly 30 million movie tickets. And the kids were clamoring to buy Xuxa comics, outfits, and dolls.
By the early 1990s, tens of millions of children watched their programs in Portuguese and Spanish. A French newspaper listed her as one of the most influential women in the world, along with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Although much of her audience was black or mixed race, Xuxa was descended from Italian, Polish and German immigrants. Some complained that she was too sexualized to be a role model for children. Before children’s television, she had posed for Playboy.
In recent years, the internet has scrutinized Xuxa’s worst moments, such as claiming that her viewers preferred blonde Paquitas, wearing an indigenous headdress, and telling a girl she lost a contest on her show because “you ate too many French fries.”
Xuxa says she regrets such comments, but added that the biggest problem was the standards of that time. She was asked to lose weight, she was forced to undergo plastic surgery and she was forbidden to cut her hair. When she became a mother, she got the pixie cut she’s had for years, declaring, “now I don’t want to be a doll anymore”.
Xuxa never saw herself as a feminist, but she became a symbol of female empowerment nonetheless. She told the girls that they could achieve anything. And she ran a multi-million dollar empire as a single mom. “I never thought of getting married, I never looked for my Ken,” she said.
He raised his voice for animal rights. She learned sign language to communicate with deaf viewers. And clad in costumes that evoked transvestite culture, she became an idol in the LGBTQ community.
Now, he said he better understands the influence he wields and is trying to promote advances in representation. At a recent charity event, Xuxa took the stage with her two blonde successors of hers on Brazilian children’s television. The three women sang songs that had been taught to millions as children. Behind them, about a dozen black dancers twirled and leaped.
It seemed to be a display of racial inclusion. But online, many interpreted the gathering as a celebration of the whitewashing of Brazilian pop culture.
Xuxa said that the discussion about her impact has taught her a lot about herself and society. “We only learn to do things right by seeing that we are going down the wrong path,” she said.
Jack Nicas contributed reporting to this article.
By: ANA IONOVA
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6859717, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-08-22 19:10:10
#Xuxa #Brazilian #Barbie #90s #feels #regret