Objectify This

Ok, I know that Gwen Stefani is not everyone’s role model, but she is mine right now, because I ain’t no hollaback girl. Right now,  I’m in Rio de Janeiro, conducting thesis research, and there’s so much to see, do, and understand beyond the issue of the postcards with pictures of girls’ butts on them. Same goes for the creepy (not Brazilian) dude in my hostel.

It does seem like, as they say here, God is Brazilian: I have yet to meet a Brazilian who said anything negative or threatening to me, and many people have helped me kindly and warmly, as if I were a neice instead of a stranger who was consistently butchering their language, which is how some people think of God. I asked, today, for the “bath” in a coffeeshop, and the baker turned from her work and looked at me with real affection and said, slowly and clearly, “bathroom.”

Then, there’s also the tremendous social inequality, which makes me realize that I’m terribly naive about the state of the world. I tried to fend off my first child beggar by just walking away, but he pursued, frowning and making eating motions, “please, some money, just a little, i’m so hungry”. I said no, and tried to walk away, again, but he asked, “will you buy me some milk?” and I said, “ok, yeah,” – I mean, you can’t really misuse milk. when i came out of the store (whose employees had immediately ushered out the favela kid unceremoniously when we came in), the first kid was ecstatic, and laughing and dancing, and another kid was waiting with him, and it started again: “please, some money” and followed me down the street begging until i gave him 1 real, about fifty cents.

People here say that God is Brazilian. As the child of a pagan and a committed Jewish atheist, I have no idea what to make of the idea of God, who towers over this Catholic city and talks to my hostel’s night janitor on long and lonely shifts. But it seems to me that if I were an omnipotent (and omnivorous) deity, I would settle down here, where there are tons of fresh juice and delicious multicultural foods, a huge beach and a beautiful mountainous landscape, and some social problems that need the attention of an all-powerful being.