(2014) Transnational Sisterhood - Brazilian Feminisms Facing Prostitution

Transnational Sisterhood? BrazilianFeminisms Facing Prostitution

Adriana Piscitelli

During the 1980s, the sex wars concerning feminism and prostitution had little effect onBrazilian feminisms. Although prostitution was far from central in this second wave offeminism in Brazil, which was organized around fighting the military regime, strugglingfor democracy and amnesty, and confronting specific struggles against male domination,it provoked curiosity, and a certain proximity grew between feminists and prostitutes.During the decades of 2000 and 2010, networks and coalitions of Brazilian feminists withtransnational articulations have increasingly adopted an abolitionist position, denying thedifferences between prostitution and sex trafficking and refusing to listen to the voices oforganized prostitutes. In this article I analyze this complex process, based on researchconducted between 2004 and 2011 with an anthropological approach on transnational sexmarkets and sex trafficking, in which I interviewed Brazilian prostitutes in this countryand abroad, feminists, and agents in different positions of the Brazilian state.

Durante la dcada de 1980, las guerras del sexo feministas en torno a la prostitucintuvieron poco impacto sobre los feminismos brasileos. Aunque la prostitucin noconstituy un tema central de debate en la segunda ola del feminismo en Brasil, queestaba organizado en torno a la oposicin contra el rgimen militar, las luchas a favor dela democracia y la amnista y la confrontacin contra aspectos concretos de la dominacinmasculina despertaron la curiosidad, y hubo proximidad entre algunas feministas yprostitutas. Durante las dcadas de 2000 y 2010, redes y coaliciones de feministasbrasileas con articulaciones transnacionales han adoptado cada vez ms posicionesabolicionistas, negando las diferencias entre prostitucin y trfico con fines de explotacinsexual y negndose a escuchar las voces de las prostitutas organizadas. En este artculoanalizo este proceso complejo, basndome en investigaciones realizadas entre 2004 y 2011,en una perspectiva antropolgica, sobre mercados del sexo transnacionales y trfico confines de explotacin sexual, en las que entrevist a prostitutas brasileas en Brasil y en elexterior, a feministas y a agentes en diferentes puestos del Estado brasileo.

Key words: transnational feminisms, prostitution, Brazil, sex trafficking

During the decades of 2000 and 2010, networks and coalitions of Brazilianfeminists linked to transnational feminist articulations have increasinglyadopted positions against recognizing prostitution as a labor activity. In thismovement, they refuse to listen to the voices of prostitutes and to recognizedifferences between prostitution and human trafficking for the purposes ofsexual exploitation. This position is far from limited to Brazilian feminisms

Latin American PolicyVolume 5, Number 2Pages 221235 2014 Policy Studies Organization. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

(Bernstein, 2012; Cheng, 2013), but it stands out in Brazil, considering the rela-tions between prostitution and feminists in the recent history of feminism in thecountry. In this text I analyze this process based on studies I have conducted withan anthropological approach since 2004 on transnational sex markets, humantrafficking, and feminisms in Brazil.1

In the first part of the article I make some comments about the concepts relatedto prostitution and human trafficking in Brazilian feminism. I then consider howsome currents became more visible in this debate, taking into account theirarticulations with the state in a transnational reading, an approach that considersthe relevance of supranational entities in the regulation of the conduct of statesand the importance of the networks of activist groups thatfocused on specificthemesexercise transnational pressure on nation-states and local activisms(Sharma & Gupta, 2006).

My main argument is that in Brazil the feminist scenario is still relativelyheterogeneous in terms of positions taken regarding prostitution. The abolitionistapproaches to prostitution and human trafficking in important lines of transna-tional feminisms are especially dominant in particular organizations of Brazilianwomen and in certain versions of youth feminisms. Mainly because of theirrelationship with the state the configuration in which the abolitionist feministvoices are inserted has been making these positions increasingly visible. Thisarticulation is integrated to a process in which the Brazilian state, responding totransnational political pressure, grants particular relevance to fighting humantrafficking. The struggle against this crime becomes an expression of modernityand even of civilization (Olivar, 2014), and the debate and actions aimed at thisproblem become widespread and are disseminated in various forums, includingcampaigns of social and religious movements.

Prostitution in the Brazilian Feminist DebateIn international debates within the feminist movement, prostitutionand later

pornographyhave been divisive issues. During the 1980s, the disputes shapeda sharp debate known as the sex wars, whose effect was the creation ofdichotomic camps around these issues (Rubin, 1984). When feminist groups inthe Anglo-Saxon world were engaged in the sex wars debate, the organizationof feminist groups in Brazil revolved around other issues (Piscitelli, 2008).During the 1970s and 1980s, prostitution did not appear among the main con-cerns of the movement. This period, identified by various authors as a secondwave of Brazils feminist movement, was focused on opposition to the militaryregime, struggles for democratization and amnesty, and specific strugglesagainst male domination, confronting violence against women and the right topleasure (Corra, 1984; Matos, 2010; Pedro, 2006; Pinto, 2003; Shumaher &Vargas, 1993).

According to authors who study the history of feminism in Brazil, the circula-tion of ideas across borders and an international articulation among feminists hasbeen present in the different waves. In the second wave, two lines of thoughtinfluenced the formation of feminism in Brazil, one from France and anotherfrom the United States. The one from the United States focused more on personaland cultural transformation and led to the translation of books that dealt with

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issues such as sexuality, contraception and abortion, and the organization ofgroups that reflected on the body, sexuality, reproduction, health care, and ste-reotypes in education. Some groups were organized around the struggle againstviolence against women (Goldberg, 1982; Sorj & Montero, 1985). Through inter-class articulations with womens community groups, demands were formulatedconcerning access to basic urban infrastructure and to child care (da AlmeidaTeles, 1993; Moraes, 1996; Pedro, 2006; Rago, 2003; Sarti, 2001).

Corra and Olivar (2014) affirm that in these decades, prostitution provokedintellectual curiosity, and some feminists frequently equated prostitution to mar-riage as a strategy for critical analysis of traditional gender relations. Sectors ofthe feminist movement and of the womens movement that had organic ties withleftist political parties or with progressive churches considered prostitution asthe culmination of capitalist exploitation of the female body.

The narratives of feminists and prostitutes interviewed in my studies suggestthat, although prostitution did not constitute one of the main issues of feminismin this period, it generated interest. Discussions about the issue led to newperceptions about sexuality. The statement of one feminist from So Paulo high-lights the innovative aspect in reflections about prostitution at the time:

At the end of the 1970s, the fundamental focus in feminism was on the issue of thedictatorship, of Amnesty . . . sexuality was a bit buried. But, you can see the interest.. . . Cida Adair produced a documentary, Mulheres da Boca.2 The approach of thisfilm is incredible; there is no moral duality, the whore and the other. It doesnt havethis thing of the sexuality of the prostitute necessarily as a disgrace. Those womenhad autonomy, a command of the body, of pleasure. . . . I also remember anextraordinary march; we all went and said, we are all prostitutes. This was allbefore the 80s, it was definitely a libertarian state of spiritcreative, inventivethe institutionalization came later. (M. L. Quartim de Moraes, personal communi-cation, August 27, 2010).

Gabriela Leite, founder of the first organization of prostitutes in Brazil and ofthe National Network of Prostitutes in the late 1980s, also registered this spirit.According to her, the first contact with the feminists during the 1980s was posi-tive. The situation changed over time, expressed since the 1990s either throughopen rejectionon on the part of feminists who refused to listen to the voices of theprostitutes, or through an ambivalent relationship. She affirmed, Societychanged and this is reflected in the movements, which are much more conser-vative than in the 1990s, given that then they were already more conservativethan in the 1970s (personal communication, Rio de Janeiro, 2010; Feministas detodo o Brasil presentes no I Encontro Nacional da AMB e Oficina 3, 2006; Jornalda Marcha Mundial de Mulheres, 2010; Organizao Sempre Viva, 2014). Femi-nists with important work on the national scene affirmed that prostitution wasexploitation against women. At the same time, positions such as that of GabrielaLeite, which affirmed the exercise of prostitution as a choice and a right, wereseen as disturbing because prostitution was the expression of a concept that wasdear to feminism, autonomy.

Ambivalent and negative readings of prostitution have expanded since the late1990s. This expansion is related to the reconfigurations of the feminist movementin Brazil, which, based on the redemocratization of the country in 1985, involvenongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that spread throughout Brazil, coordi-nated in part by militants from the movement of the 1970s and 1980s, and

Transnational Sisterhood? 223

articulations with the state (Pinto, 2006; Shumaher & Vargas, 1993). This thirdmoment of feminism in Brazil raised questions about the autonomy of the move-ment and dangers present in the appropriation of the feminist discourse byofficial entities (Shumaher & Vargas, 1993).

Unanimously negative readings about prostitution were promoted when itwas linked to sexual tourism and to international human trafficking for purposesof sexual exploitation. The relationship between Brazilian mulatas, prostitution,and tourism is present in the writings of black feminists in the early 1980s(Gonzalez, 1982), but the reading of this relationship as sexual tourism and itsconnection with human trafficking was made later, in the formulations of NGOsthat articulated with transnational feminist networks and worked in cities of theBrazilian Northeast, considered the target of sexual tourism (Chame, 1998;Pestrello & Dias, 1996; Piscitelli, 2012). These interpretations, as well as thenegative perceptions about prostitution, have expanded since the turn of thecentury, in the realm of the expansion of the trafficking debate in the nationalarena and the intensification of transnational feminist articulations.

I refer to these articulations and allude empirically to feminist networks struc-tured through transnational borders not necessarily engaged with the initialtransnational feminisms theoretical perspectives. These perspectives, con-nected to Third World and post-colonial feminisms, were seriously concernedwith how race and global capitalism position women in extremely diverse ways(Alexander & Mohanty, 1997; Grewal & Kaplan, 1994). Taking into account thedifferences among women, the idea was to theorize alterity in readings thatallowed the understanding of how the histories of inequalities have structureddiverse values, desires, and needs in women of different groups and classes inthe world (Gupta, 2006).

These insights fed a rich feminist scholarship that challenged politics of local-ization anchored in oppositions between global and local, center and periphery,favoring analytical lines that cut through these oppositions and called for adisplacement also in terms of political organization and mobilization throughborders (Grewal & Kaplan, 1994). Dialoguing with these perspectives, somestudies have analyzed United Nations agencies and organized groups of women,considering the importance of the notion of womens human rights to challengegender oppressions (Collins, Falcn, Lodhia, & Talcott, 2010), and also taking intoaccount how those organizations reproduce geopolitical, class, and educationalhierarchies. Other studies have focused on the actions of transnational feministnetworks. Critical readings about these networks observe that their work acrossnational borders does not necessarily activate the theoretical premises of trans-national feminisms. The expression transnational feminisms has spread andbeen apropriated in diverse locations, acquiring different meanings (de LimaCosta, 2006; Nagar, 2002; Thayer, 2001). It has been incorporated even to denomi-nate feminist practices that are seen as erasing key issues initially raised bytransnational feminisms, such as the challenge to the idea of global sisterhoodthat international feminisms promoted, ignoring differences among women(Patil, 2011). Although transnational feminist networks use the expression trans-national feminisms to talk about themselves, and others use the term to talkabout them, these networks sometimes reiterate linear notions of gender inequal-ity and of feminism connected to the idea of global sisterhood.


These networks influenced national and regional feminisms in Brazil duringthe 2000s, a fourth wave characterized by work along with arenas of action inthe realm of civil society and at the borders between it and the state, and by theaction of feminism from a transnational perspective (Matos, 2010). This momentcoincides with the rise of counter-hegemonic social forces, the solidarity andglobal justice movements, which were organized in opposition to the neoliberalregime. According to Alvarez (2009), this reaction stimulated resistance move-ments that involved a broad range of actors outside the state. Alvarez affirms thatnew popular forms of feminism allowed women who were ignored by themovement to transform their position in it through ties with national and globalstruggles. In Brazil, these feminisms, together with the young feminists, whichfor the first time presented an agenda different from that of previous generations(de Papa & Souza, 2009), produced effervescent currents in the movement. This isthe context in which the visibility of negative feminist readings about prostitu-tion and of linear connections between prostitution and trafficking in women inBrazil has intensified.

Feminisms and Human TraffickingIn terms of organized civil society, at the turn of the millennium in Brazil the

organization against human trafficking was associated with movements thatsupported the rights of children and not of women (Piscitelli, 2008). In the decadeof 2000, the movement against human trafficking grew in the frame of politicalpressure and also financial and technical support from supranational multilateralagencies for governmental and nongovernmental agencies in a process that,inserting itself in the notion of a transnational human rights regime (Sharma &Gupta, 2006), led to the elaborationof the National Policy to Confront HumanTrafficking in 2005 and 2006. This process, with the participation of the SpecialSecretariat of Public Policies for Women, included a broad consultation of society(Ministrio da Justia, 2007) which, according to members of organizations ofprostitutes, has conceded little space to sexual workers.

Various organized groups of prostitutes in Brazil, with differing positions inrelation to the discussion about regulation and legalization of the activity (Olivar,2014), are integrated in networks including the National Network of Prostitutesand the National Federation of Sex Workers. Some prostitutes are also linked tothe Pastoral of Marginalized Women, which is affiliated to the Catholic church.At the heart of the Pastoral was born the Grupo Mulher, tica e Libertao(Womens, Ethics and Liberation Group; GMEL), which is composed of prosti-tutes or former prostitutes with the proposal to be a social organization againstthe regulation of prostitution (GMEL, n.d.).

In recent discussions about human trafficking, the relevance of the articulationbetween the government and the supranational multilateral agencies, particularlythe United Nations Office against Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), appears morediluted. The clear driving force of the entities that provide support to the rightsof children in the debate are also diluted because different historical causes in thehuman rights agenda in Brazil began to use the language of human trafficking(Sprandel & Mansur, 2010). Finally, through the creation of state and municipalcommissions to confront this crime and the carrying out of countless training


courses and campaigns, in Brazil and abroad, a capillarization process was pro-duced that led to the incorporation of the problematic sectors of society. In 2013,the Catholic church chose the issue of human trafficking as an emblem of itsFraternity Campaign for the following year, using multipliers to take theproblem to parochial churches in municipalities throughout the country. In aglobal context in which Brazil is attracting international migration, there is arevigorated interest from the state in policing the Brazilian borders. In remoteparts of the country such as the Amazon region, these campaigns directed towardthe protection of the local indigenous population frequently actualize civilizatorydiscourses.

Human trafficking also became a relevant issue for important Brazilianwomens coalitions. During the 2000s and 2010, national feminist articulationsstrengthened and amplified the isolated feminist voices in NGOs raised yearsbefore in the northeast of the country. These articulations, linked to transnationalmovements, reacted to the effects of globalization on women, choosing as one oftheir preferential targets the commodification of the body and focusing particu-larly on sexual exploitation and sex trafficking. The connection between nationalfeminist articulations and transnational feminist movements influenced by abo-litionist ideas (Barry, 1997) is important because it is in the context of thesearticulations that sectors of Brazilian feminism publicly endorse the fight againstprostitution at the national level (Piscitelli, Beleli, Passeti de Moura, &Skackauskas Vaz de Mello, 2011). The Articulao de Mulheres Brasileiras (AMB)was created in the 2000s, articulating womens organizations of all Brazilianstates connected to different political parties and integrated in internationalSouth/South networks. The World March of Women Against Violence andPoverty took place in 2000 and was linked to the antiglobalization movement asa large mobilization that joined women from throughout the world in a campaignagainst poverty and violence (Nobre & Faria, 2003).

My field notes from the panel on prostitution of the 2010 World March ofWomen offer examples of the dissemination of a negative view of prostitutionand the connections made between decriminalization and sex trafficking. Some3,000 women participated in this action of the March, with delegations fromnearly all Brazilian states.

The group came to gather some 35 women. The mediators are a representativeof the March of Women, a white woman, apparently a university student, in herearly twenties; a former prostitute from a group linked to the Catholic Pastoral ofthe Marginalized Women; a black women, about 50 years old, who appears to below-income. Representatives of other feminist organizations are also present.

The former prostitute explains why her group decided to struggle fornonregulation. In their vision, prostitution is the greatest form of violence againstwomen. Projects (for regulation) would facilitate the life of the exploiters, becausethey would be decriminalized, which would facilitate trafficking in women,because they could take the women any place they wanted. She affirmed that sheknows the psychological trauma that prostitutes suffer, that many need to do thisto buy milk, that the majority are black or Afro-descendants, which speaks ofpoverty.

This womans talk is powerful. She has the authority of experience, of someonewho was a prostitute. The women seated in the circle agree with her. They offer


examples of terrible experiences, such as in the Amazon region, where prostitu-tion involves girls of 1011, and those who are 1617 are already expended. Theyaffirm that prostitution is violence, and violence cannot be regulated. Prostitutionis one of the main forms of oppression inserted in a global system.

Other voices affirm that it is complicated for feminists to defend regulation,because feminists should be anti-capitalist and anti-mercantilist, and in prostitu-tion, that which is most important for each individual, which is the body,becomes a great commodity. The motion was raised for the March to have aposition against prostitution. The women from different states were enthusiasticabout this and affirmed, by speaking out, that they would take this motion totheir organizations and neighborhoods (Field diary, Author, October, 3, 2010).

Some highlights of this panel are the identification of prostitution as sexistviolence, the rejection of the right to work as a prostitute, and the argument ofpoverty. This argument also led to the possibility of non-forced prostitution beinginconceivable. Other significant points are the idea of trauma, psychologicalsuffering, and pain linked to prostitution, which evoke the most effective aspectsof the influential issues linked to humanitarian policies (Fassin, 2007), and thelink between prostitution and human trafficking.

These points show how some feminist articulations and organizations arefacing the discussion about prostitution in the human trafficking debate. Themost visible trends in the public debate tend to consider prostitution to be sexualexploitation, thus evoking abolitionist ideas and opposing its consideration aswork.

Abolitionism in Brazilian Feminism?Jurist Maria Luisa Maqueda Abreu (2009) offers elements for thinking about

the abolitionist model. According to her, the abolitionist ideology, which isclosely linked to the first European feminist movements, proposed abolishing theregulation of prostitution found in various countries since the second half of the19th century. The abolitionists struggled against the medical, police, and reli-gious arbitrariness to which prostitutes were submitted, considering themselvesas liberators of the slaves. The defense of prostitutes, who were seen as victims ofan immoral system, was associated with crusades of purification.

Since the late 19th century, narratives about sexual trafficking of women fedand favored abolitionism. The 1949 United Nations Convention against humantrafficking and the exploitation of and prostitution of others is considered oneof the most representative documents of this movement. According to MaquedaAbreu (2009), it presented central aspects of the abolitionist ideology including:(1) consider prostitution as incompatible with the dignity and value of thehuman person because it places in danger the well-being of the individual, thefamily, and community; (2) link prostitution and human trafficking; (3) rejectany suggestion of legal tolerance toward prostitution; (4) criminalize all crimi-nal activity associated with prostitution; and (5) consider someone who exer-cises prostitution as a victim and, therefore, outside the reach of any legalintervention. This final aspect is linked to the fact that the consent of the pros-titute is considered irrelevant, so the principle of autonomy of will is notrecognized.


Since the second half of the 1970s, at the confluence between an expansion,diversification, transnationalization, and relative normalization of prostitutionand a modification of ideas about sexuality came about, the abolitionist dis-courses changed, exchanging the old arguments linked to morality, sin, andlasciviousness for others of violence against women. Prostitution came to be asymbol of this violence, and prostitutes were seen as slaves who should be freedand should be made aware of the oppression that they suffered.

Another important principle of radical abolitionism was born in thiscontext, the rejection of the right to work as a prostitute, which goes againstuniversal human rights. In this line of thinking, prostitution is sexual exploi-tation because in it sexual pleasure is obtained through the abusive useof a persons sexuality, annulling her rights to dignity, equality, autonomy,and well-being. For this reason, radical abolitionism intends to penalize theclient, who is guilty of violence against the human rights of women involved inprostitution.

In terms of feminism in Brazil, statements from feminists taken in So Pauloand Rio de Janeiro and the positions assumed by feminists in various publicmeetings attended during the fieldwork offer a heterogeneity of positions. Somefeminists reiterate ideas with abolitionist echoes. Others manifest an intermedi-ary position, affirming the impossibility of opposing the organized prostituteswho want to regulate their profession, and yet expressing as feminists a difficultywith an activity that makes women objects.

There are others who reveal a more open position. They affirm the strengthand empowerment of women who work as prostitutes in Brazil, they are awareof the discrimination of which they are objects and of the advantages of thisactivity in relation to other poorly paid services in which they may be even moresubjugated. These interpretations, which recognize that feminism has great dif-ficulty advancing in this debate, also include perspectives that situate prostitutionin the realm of the right of choice of women and reject the idea that the prostituteis commodifying her body and other women are not; the difference is in themoralism with which any sexual activity is perceived. They also affirm that thechurch and NGOs control prostitutes in Brazil.

This does not mean that these perspectives necessarily coincide with those ofthe groups or networks to which the women interviewed belong. The fieldworkshows that, in the realm of these different positions about prostitutions, at timesthere are distinctions between the positions of the leaders of the NGOs and thearticulations and positions that members or representatives of the base linkedto these organizations manifest in public meetings with feminists or with gov-ernment officials.

Among the feminists interviewed, those linked to the World March ofWomen most clearly reject the idea of considering prostitution as work.According to these activists, the other organizations consider prostitution as aprofession to be regulated and perceive it as a choice located in the field ofindividual rights, but the study shows that, contrary to what these activiststhink, there is no consensus in the organizations whose members frequentlyavoid discussing the issue of prostitution. A number of them make distinctionsbetween forced prostitutionlinked to moral, financial, or physical coercionand non-forced sex professionals.


This heterogeneity also seems to be present in some of the new expressions offeminism, such as in the Marcha das Vadias (Slut Walk) and in alternative feministpublications on the Internet. Interviews conducted with organizers and partici-pants in these marches in different cities of the state of So Paulo reveal a broaddiversity and a lack of consensus as well as a certain care about addressing thetheme. According to a participant in the World March of Women in the city of SoPaulo, a poster with the slogan Neither saint, nor whore was removed after areflection about the inconveniences of this polarization (personal communica-tion, 2012).3 To these manifestations it is necessary to add the ideas presented inthe alternative press on the Internet, in which some young feminists recognizeprostitution as work.4 Among the young feminists there are also some radicaluniversity students who, hiding their names and institutional affiliations, pro-moted belligerent attacks on students who supported the rights of prostitutes in2013 (Figure 1).

Figure 1. What you call individual choice we call heteropatriarchal terrorism. Abolition ofprostitution. Poster placed at the entrance to the room where an academic group worked with

prostitution. Federal University at Santa Catarina, BrazilSource: Photo by Thaddeus Blanchette, 2013.


Although they hold different positions on the topic, even the Brazilian femi-nists who are against prostitution respect the prostitute associations as organizedwomens groups. Meanwhile, although some of those interviewed who are partof organizations and articulations believe there is an urgent need to resolve theproblem of human trafficking, others affirm that neither trafficking or prostitu-tion are relevant on the current agenda of Brazilian feminism. These opinionscoincide with the perception of the governments General Coordinator of Accessto Justice and Combat against Violence of the Special Secretariat of Policies forWomen (SPM). In 2010, in reference to human trafficking, she said that theSecretariat had found few partnerships among the feminists, We have morerelations with groups aimed specifically at human trafficking. We have little spacein the feminist movement to discuss the issue (personal communication,Brasilia, 2010).

The question is how the abolitionist voices stand out in public debate in therealm of these different positions among feminists.

Abolitionism in the State?In April 2008, the Secretariat of Public Policies for Women conducted a Work-

shop on Female Prostitution, and later planned the First National Conferenceabout prostitution (Secretaria Especial de Polticas Pblicas para as mulheres,2008), with the participation of technical staff from various areas of government,representatives from diverse ministries and from the Special Secretariat forHuman Rights, feminist organizations, organizations of sexual workers, andstudents. Although it was invited, the National Network of Prostitutes did notparticipate, but representatives of the National Federation of Sex Workers werepresent.

In terms of feminist organizations, feminist articulations were invited, somethat were openly against the regulation of prostitution, and others that were morecautious but which were also present and participated with a representative whois a former prostitute from GMEL, the collective against regulating the profes-sion. In this government space, in which members of the ministries and govern-ment staff had apparently open, moderate positions in relation to the debateabout prostitution, some feminist voices stood out, those against recognition ofprostitution as work.

In this debate, the diversity in Brazilian feminism was erased. Despite theexisting heterogeneity, abolitionist positions became united, and the ties betweenprostitution and human trafficking became visible, but this visibility is possiblebecause this positioning is echoed in positions thatin the realm of the stategobeyond the feminist debate.

Considering some positions of the Brazilian government, Corra and Olivar(2014) affirm that it is not possible to conclude that Brazilian policies are adoptingan openly abolitionist and criminalizing position. These authors also affirm thatthe abolitionist positions, both mild and extreme ones, circulate on the socialplane in Brazil, even among feminists, contrasting with the neutrality of a broadrange of actors located in the top political arena. My perception differs, consid-ering a variety of factors, including the persistence of laws fed by the abolitionist


ideal that confuse human trafficking with travel to exercise prostitution and legaldecisions that refer to these ideas.

One of the problems found in the discussions and state policies about ontrafficking is Brazilian legislation on the topic. The Brazilian government ratifiedthe Palermo Protocol in March 2004, but the Brazilian Penal Codes reference totrafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation is not exactly coincident with theProtocol. In the Penal Code, in keeping with the abolitionist United NationsConvention of 1949, it was considered trafficking (of women) to promote orfacilitate the entrance in national territory of women who come to exercise pros-titution in the country or the exit of a woman who goes to exercise it abroad,establishing fines and additional penalties in cases in which there is use ofviolence, serious threats, or fraud and profit-making purposes.

According to federal attorney Ela Wiecko V. de Castilho (2006) the term facili-tate found in the Penal Code encompasses actions such as providing money,documents, or a passport, or purchasing clothes or utensils for travel. Followingother abolitionist principles, according to the Penal Code, free consent does notnegate the crime. Considering that, in practice, migrants or people who travel tocarry out an activity always require and receive help, nearly any form of migra-tion or movement to work in the sex industry can be seen as trafficking.5

The National Policy for Confronting Human Trafficking uses the definitionfound in the Palermo Protocol, chapter 1, article 2 (United Nations, 2000), but inarticles 24, it refers to mere intermediation, promotion, or facilitation in themovement, lodging, or taking in of people for purposes of exploitation, anon-defined term. Although it follows the Palermo Protocol, this policy incorpo-rates abolitionist aspects evoked by the Penal Code.

In terms of the application of justice, in certain instances the definition ofhuman trafficking found in the Palermo Protocol is used, but others use thedefinition of human trafficking from the Penal Code. This leads to legal proceed-ings that do not recognize the capacity of women to exercise the right to theirown bodies and denies the possibility of considering prostitution as work. Pros-titution is considered an element that provokes moral and familiar degradation,and prostitutes are stigmatized as a way of establishing the place of women insociety, based on classic abolitionist concepts (de Castilho, 2008).

The state has not made any serious movements regarding the extreme aboli-tionist measures, such as the criminalization of clients, although this idea is notabsent from the discussions. In meetings such as the 2008 Workshop on FemaleProstitution, the representatives of the state appeared to take more neutral posi-tions than those of the various feminists, but the procedures used to choose thefeminists to be interlocutors in this debate about public policies aimed atprostitutionaccording to criteria for representativenessemphasize only somevoices. One member of this Secretariat said of these choices:

We tried to conduct decentralized work, we encouraged state and municipalagencies that implement policies for women to contact these groups and debate theissue. And then we wind up having more direct contact with these [groups] whichhave a national repercussion. (Personal communication, Brasilia, 2010).

In the realm of this apparent neutrality, certain state bodies seem to support theinitiatives of some feminist groups and of some prostitutes. Printed material


produced by GMEL about the the legal mark in defense of women in a situationof prostitution, in partnership with the Catholic Pastoral of MarginalizedWomen, with the support of the Special Secretariat for Policies for Women,comments on this idea.

In comic book style, in a dialog between two prostitutes, the booklet positionsitself as openly abolitionist, affirming that this means that the governmentshould guarantee alternatives for those who want to leave prostitution andprevent the entrance of others by offering suitable public policies. But this hasnot taken place in Brazil sixty years after the International Abolitionist Conven-tion (GMEL, n.d.).

Final ConsiderationsStudies conducted in different countries show that feminism is far from being

a preponderant political force in the recent discussions and actions related toprostitution and human trafficking (Gimeno, 2012; Valiente Fernndez, 2004).These studies come to the conclusion that agents that respond to other interestslinked to migratory policies and to efforts to gentrify citiesuse and recreateideas formulated by certain perspectives of feminism. Feminism has not beendecisive when political decisions are made concerning the legal status assumedby prostitution.

Concerning the actions aimed at prostitution and human trafficking, the femi-nist movement in Brazil does not appear to have had a central role in stimulatingthe debate, but the current configurations of the movement, particularly thearticulation of national feminist networks connected to transnational feministabolitionist associations that work with the state, suggest that some lines of thefeminist movement are gaining a new weight in the discussions and actionsrelated to these issues.

This article shows how (neo)abolitionist interpretations have not necessarilybeen the predominant feminist visions in Brazil, nor are they the only ones thatexist today. Differences in opinion can be explained by the fact that some of thefeminists who participated in the autonomous movement in the second half of the1970sa period considered more libertariannow participate in NGOs, many ofwhich were created in the 1980s and 1990s and which are integrated into trans-national networks and articulations formed in the 2000s. These networks andarticulations are broad; they integrate various trends of womens movements thatare considered feminist, with ties to various parties and, in some cases, to reli-gious affiliations.

This diversity, which also includes young feminist voices, is at times erased inthe articulations between feminisms and the state, in interchanges that empha-size particular feminist readings that focus on what is defined as internationalwomens rights, evoking global sisterhood. Meetings between organizationsand the state do not pay attention to the diversity of local feminist voices andignore the positions of relevant national prostitute organizations. Working withthe state or with the support of state entities, these feminist interpretationspromote certain perspectives about prostitution and human trafficking that othertransnational articulations linked to supranational entities, with agendas that


prioritize securitization and that are not necessarily connected to feminist inter-ests, endorse.

About the AuthorAdriana Piscitelli is a feminist social anthropologist, Professor at the Univer-

sity of Campinas (Brazil), National Science Research Council Researcher, andSenior Researcher and Associate Coordinator of the State University ofCampinas/Unicamp Centre for Gender Studies (PAGU Center).

Notes1These studies consider the trajectories of Brazilian women who migrate abroad from contexts of

sexual tourism in Brazil, and of sexual workers inserted in the sex industry in countries of SouthernEurope, and the relations between feminisms in Brazil, the debates about prostitution, and humantrafficking (Piscitelli, 2008, 2012; Piscitelli et al., 2011).

2Aidar and Castilho (1981). Documentary film.3In Campinas, the Coletivo das Vadias held a joint activity with the Associao de Prostitutas

Mulheres Guerreiras.4See Moschkovich, n.d.5On March 28, 2006, the Penal Code was modified by Law no. 11.106, which deals with inter-

national trafficking of people (and not women) and with adding measures related to the internaltraffic of people (within Brazilian territory).The most recent legal alterations, Law no.12015, Aug. 7,2009, extends the punishment to those that entice or purchase a trafficked person and have knowl-edge of this condition, or transport, transfer, or lodge them. These modifications do not alter theabolitionist spirit of the Penal Code.

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