MC Marie gives an interview in a bikini while lying in the pool at Ferias do Pocha, a new influencer house for bisexual and lesbian Brazilians to collaborate on social media content. MC Marie is Junqueira (Female funk artist) sings songs full of explicit sexual declarations, such as the hit song “Gosto Muito” (“I Really Love You”), released on Brazil’s National Lesbian Visibility Day 2021. “To Querendo um App” (“To Querendo um App”), about a lesbian sex app. and “Ele Me Quer, Ela Me Quer” (“He Wants Me, She Wants Me”), a bisexual anthem written for her friend. Vulgarity is not in vain. These songs are part of a growing subgenre of Brazilian funk that promotes a new kind of liberation through music.
In recent weeks, I spoke with three of Sapa Funk’s funkeiras: MC Marie, MC Mano Feu, and MC Lalan de TdS (Funk Sapatan) subgenre allows us to see how these artists see themselves and their music as they raise lesbian visibility in the male-dominated world of funk.
Sapatão literally means “big shoes” and the nickname “Maria Sapatão” was first used in the 1970s to refer pejoratively to gay women who allegedly preferred men’s shoes to “ladylike” shoes. It comes from a nickname. “Zapatan” has since been reclaimed by the community, evidenced by countless graffiti tags and stickers advertising Sapphic she parties on the bathroom walls of São Paulo’s lesbian she bars. Asked to define the term, MC Marie cheekily launched into the chorus of her song “A Dyke Olhou pra Mim” (“A Dyke Looked at Me”), adding the closest English equivalent, “dyke.” suggested.
Funk: A legacy of protest
RThe broader genre of funk carioca, or Brazilian funk, characterized by bass-driven volume and intense lyrics, originated in Rio de Janeiro in the 1980s and was created by Brazil’s predominantly Afro-Brazilian favela communities. I did. Influenced by a variety of black music in the United States, such as hip-hop, Miami bass, and funk, favela residents create genres in their own languages, along with shades of traditional African religious music, samba, and other regional genres. invented.
MC Marie grew up in Fonsecistan (Fonseca) in the northern zone of Niterói in Rio de Janeiro and eventually moved to São Paulo. She began singing lesbian funk when she was living in the Morro do Palacio favela in Niteroi and studying art at the nearby Federal University. During that time, she frequently performed for friends in Zapatan. “I make music that we want to hear, right?”
MC Mano Feu, a resident of the San Martín community in Campinas, São Paulo state, stepped into the world of poetry. Funk Consciente (socially conscious funk). Her early songwriting spoke of her experiences growing up in the slums.
MC Laran de TdS, who lives in the Taboan da Serra area of São Paulo, similarly grew up immersed in the funk genre. “Funk was from my childhood…Funk is more than just a musical genre. Being a funk singer is a lifestyle, the way you dress, the way you carry yourself, your visual identity, your physical identity, the way you speak, the way you behave. That’s you. That’s you. Funk is important because it strengthens my identity, and it is the identity of many people in the surrounding area.”
Beyond its role as a discourse of protest for Brazil’s youth, funk has a rich history as a catalyst for social change, addressing issues such as poverty, racism, and police brutality. The politically subversive power of its lyrics also creates a medium for marginalized youth to claim and express their joy through sex, love, and joy.In an interview about his recent book Oh funk na batida, Danilo Simlot argues that the key to funk’s popularity is that it’s not top-down. This music has a certain homely, grassroots quality to it, both in its creation and in its success. Funk music is a very popular genre around the world, and is currently reaching new levels of fandom with its rapid spread on TikTok, and is one of the vibrant protagonists of Brazil’s black and favela communities. It continues to be a voice.
Social tensions surrounding funk
Funk is also debatable. Simrodt writes about the complexities surrounding the criminalization of this genre. The term “arastan” (trawl net), which refers to trawl nets that are dragged across the ocean floor to collect fish and other materials, has become a term used in Brazil to refer to mass thefts in public places. The term first came to prominence in 1992 after a gang theft at Rio de Janeiro’s Arpoador Beach, between Copacabana and Ipanema. Anthropologist Hermano Viana points to this event and the extensive media coverage that followed as a turning point. The middle- and upper-class residents of Rio’s southern districts became increasingly concerned about being seen as unruly youth by the periphery, and funk music came to be seen as their anthem. . What followed included both the expansion of a fan base for life in Brazil’s favelas (even glorification, according to Kimrot), and simultaneous attempts by the state to discipline and repress celebrities. was. Vile Funk They were famous parties.
MC Marie shares her first memory of funk when her school held Career Day. Her mother, who didn’t have a formal job at the time, showed up in a skirt with a small radio in hand and taught her 7- and 8-year-old children how to dance funk. “Her parents started pulling their kids out of school because her mom was teaching funk,” Marie says. She says, “There was a huge prejudice against funk, and a discomfort with this culture that came from the fringes.”
Sapa funk: a new wave of social change
THis critique of funk music extends beyond its racist and classist nature. There has been much discussion about his funk lyrics promoting drugs, violence, masculinity, the objectification of women, and the eroticization of children. “Nobinhas” is a slang term for teenage girls that often becomes a mainstream topic of discussion. Funk Putalia (funk with aggressive and sexual lyrics). While they both speak fondly of what funk as a whole means to them, MC Marie and MC Mano Fu also address the sexism that exists within the funk genre, both in the lyrics and in the industry itself. He also pointed out homophobia. “Funk reproduces sexist stereotypes of abuse and control,” says MC Marie. “Just listen to it and pay attention to the lyrics.”
Building on the works of Funkeira, such as MC Katia, Lyudmila, Anitta, MC Carol, Tati Kebra Barako, Valeska Popozda, these Sapafunk artists feel the need to build something new . Collaboration is key in this small and growing genre, and 7 funquillas – MC Mano Feu, MC Marie, MC Laron de TdS, MC k-rolzinha, MC L Original, MC Paola and MC Sapinha – sing ” It also includes an upcoming release titled “Sapafunk.” . In the words of MC Marie: “This is a place of struggle, a place of our making. It feels slow, but we’ve been fighting for a long time, and there’s no space.” [FOR US (OR FOR OUR MUSIC?)]” she continues. So we help each other a lot. ”
Sapa Funk artists explain that the whole funk genre encompasses a complete focus on male sexuality. These funkeiras are flipping it, but that doesn’t mean it’s PG-rated. In “A Dyke Olhou pra Mim,” MC Marie sings (translated from Portuguese), “She lay on the bed and I already had no panties on / I wore her till she suffocated.” Sitting on my face / She didn’t ask for a break, screamed I want to give you / I looked at the dyke and the dyke looked at me.”
Some may criticize the lyrics for being crude. But the overtly sexual nature of mainstream funk has its own political significance. MC Marie explains: my desire. My music speaks about my experiences, but it’s not just about me. However, it is unusual for a woman’s desire to love another woman to be expressed in this way. ”
MC Mano Fu elaborates: funk Putaria [funk with heavily sexual lyrics], but I tried to break this down. For example, if what’s popular right now is talking about sex, I’m going to talk about myself and what’s good for me. ” she continued. “Guys are spouting a lot of shit. Only their pleasure has visibility and mine doesn’t. We want to express our own pleasure without denigrating or humiliating anyone. Let’s talk about. Hey, if we’re going to talk about sex, let’s talk about us.
She added: “Oh, and it has to be a more danceable, happy funk hit.”
Indeed, this music is an effort at expression. MC Marie laments the fact that even at rolê sapatão (sapatan parties) people dance to music about heterosexual sex and romance. In contrast, in MC Kanojo Mano Feu’s “SouSapatão” (I am Sapatão), she sings: In a way that made everyone stop / She moved up and down, moving her body, crazy, my body screamed. ” In line with the broader story of funk and its embrace of joy, Sapa Funk artists argue that making their desires visible is powerful in itself.
“I don’t consider it my musical career,” explains Mac Lalan de TdS. Being a woman singing about this is also political. ”
Education through funk
MC Manu Feu says Sapafunk serves as a form of education for young people, and that education permeates their streets and homes. “Funk breaks down prejudice when it comes out, right? Because funk is the hottest thing. Kids who don’t have access to much information are full of prejudice. Like in the slums where I grew up, no one gave me a chance. I suffered from very strong homophobia. It was a very intense point of attack in my neighborhood.”
MC Mano Few explained that she was pejoratively known as María Zapatan until she redefined that title and made it her strength. She says, “I was born a Zapatan, and I am a Zapatan to the end.” These days, she is proud to hear young people in the favelas singing her songs. “They respect the next service that’s coming up,” she says. caminhoneiras Born in a favela. ” Camínhoneira means “truck driver” and is a slang term for a lesbian with a masculine appearance.
This work comes as part of broader global changes. In the world of international human rights, we are witnessing renewed attention to the systemic challenges faced by people at the intersection of certain forms of violence, discrimination, homophobia and misogyny. Just last February, Human Rights Watch released the first major global report focused on LBQ+ rights. These communities also often lack visibility and public gathering spaces that are easily accessible to other segments of the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. This is because the Lesbian Bar Project has made great strides in highlighting it in the US context.
Entertainment and pop culture do not exist completely separate from human rights advocacy. Queer movements have long been associated with music, parties, and dance as means of practical community organizing and as exceptional spaces of art and leisure where people can push the boundaries of freedom. Around the world, advocacy efforts and creative projects to increase queer and lesbian visibility are on the rise, and these Sapa Funk artists are at the forefront of that effort within the Brazilian context.
Towards the end of the interview with Mano Fu, she sings the chorus of her upcoming release “Sapa Funk”. Already sinking / This is a hit song released by the Sapatan crew / Sapp, sasap, sasap, saps, sapa funk, saps, sasap, sasap, sapa sapatan. ” she sings with a big smile on her face as she plays the beat at her kitchen table.
hannah mackenzie I’m a freelance journalist with a background in anthropology, reporting on culture and human rights from Rio de Janeiro.