Just as #MeToo and # Time’sUp needed a spokesperson to earn their spot in Hollywood, in Brazil it was no different.
In 2017, #MeToo and #TimesUp began appearing in gala events and in the media around the world, and many Brazilian actresses also shared their hashtags in support of North American colleagues. However, it was only with the voice of a production assistant that the anti-sexist, anti-harassment and anti-rape movement began here.
Su Tonani is a costume designer. Her resume has countless works on soap operas, advertisements, shows and photo shoots that she worked on for big companies like Tresemmé, Nissan, Havaianas and AirBNB since 2014.
In 2016 she was selected as an assistant costume designer for the 9 pm soap opera by Rede Globo, one of the largest telecommunications companies in Brazil. “Lei do Amor” (Law of Love) was broadcast from 09/2016 until 03/2017, but Su worked with the character costumes from 03/2016 until 04/2017. More than a year producing in the studios of the Globe next to several actors, from Monday to Saturday.
However, the young woman, who had moved to Rio de Janeiro five years before seeking her dream, didn’t imagine that she had to public express herself at the end of her work in the soap opera, after conquering fear and uncertainty, because she had been harassed by one of the most renowned actors of the company.
José Mayer, now 68, has been working at Rede Globo since 1978 on more than 30 novels and mini-series, such as Sítio do Pica Pau Amarelo (1978- Yellow Pica Pau Farm), Tieta (1989) and Laços de Família (2000- Family Ties), and also has a curriculum in national film and theater. He has already been nominated for many awards and has characters known all over Brazil. He is this gentleman, loved and respected by everyone on the brazilian television, who was removed after leading the harassment, verbal and physical, against costume designer Su Tonani.
Image Source: Maurício Fidalgo/Dedoc
According to the victim’s own report, the harassment started eight months earlier, at the beginning of the recordings, “with a simple: ‘how beautiful you are’”. Over time, this simple phrases became more intimidating and invasive, going from “how you dress well” to “I’m looking at your ass and imagining your little tits” and “you’ll never make sex with me?” “The work of my dreams had become a nightmare” said Su as she reported that, in a dressing room with José and a few other women, he placed his left hand on her genitalia. The women present didn’t say anything, they even laughed at the “joke”. “I felt despair, disgust, regret to be there. There was no complicity between us (women)”.
After this episode, the costume designer tried to stay away, afraid that in every corner she would find her aggressor. Until one day, in the middle of 30 people on the set, he threatened to touch her again if she didn’t speak to him again, insulting her in the middle of them all, as if it were normal, as if nothing could stop he. That was the last straw. “I accused the saint, the miracle and the church … I went to HR. […] I went to the department that takes care of the actors. I went to all the people, all the instances, I counted on the moral and sexual harassment that I had been suffering for months. […] The company understood the seriousness of the event and promised to take the necessary measures. I wonder what the measures will be?”.
Jose Mayer was removed from the film set. Su was forbidden to make the charge against the actor by a delegate. The officer summoned her five times at her house with two police officers to testify at his police station and the young woman needed a warrant stating that if she wanted to charge Mayer, she would go to a woman’s police station.
Image Source: Reproduction
“I had to repeat the mantra: it was not my fault. It’s never the victim’s fault. And I’d feel guilty forever if I did not. We need to talk. We need to change the gear.” And without even realizing it, her action really brightened what had long been in the dark. Several actresses, women directors and employees of Rede Globo began their own campaign against harassment. #MexeuComUmaMexeuComTodas (#MessupWithOneMessUpWithAll) became posts on Instagram, Twitter and even t-shirt used by the women of the company in protests to the harassment that always occurred in the artistic world!
Many other actresses began reporting their cases of abuse in the workplace after that. The movement took shape and left many people startled. Sometimes it’s hard to imagine that a character we love so much may be involved in cases of sexual harassment.
Left to right: Drica Moraes, Luisa Arraes,Tainá Muller, Cissa Guimarães, Astrid Fontenelle and Alice Wegmann (Image Source: TV Foco)
However, unlike the American manifestation, after this great wave of stories, there are no more frequent and effective manifestations in Brazil.
The #MeToo movement is a campaign that came out many years ago but began to gain power in Hollywood when the actress Alyssa Milano used it on her Twitter after the producer Harvey Weinstein was accused of harassment. So many other women of the artistic world began to tell their stories, encouraging many women and freeing themselves from the weight they carry.
Time’s Up was created as an active strand of the #MeToo movement. It’s more focused on the issue of workplace-related harassment and is referred to as a “solution-based, action-oriented next step in the #Metoo movement.” “The organization’s aim is to create concrete change, leading to safety and equity in the workplace”
But was the Brazilian movement less effective than the American? The movement #MexeuComUmaMexeuComTodas brought something bigger than the debate, brought justice. In 2008, Luana Piovani, brazilian actress and presenter, filed a lawsuit against her ex-fiancé Dado Dolabella, an actor surrounded by numerous controversies, most of them involving assault, for assaulting Luana and her maid Esmeralda de Souza, 65 in the time, in a nightclub in Rio de Janeiro. But that did not stop Dado from winning the brazilian reality show “A Fazenda” (The Farm) the following year.
1st pic: Dado Dolabella and the victim Luana Piovani; 2nd pic: Dado Dolabella winning the reality show (Image Source: Google Images)
Last year, in another reality show, Big Brother Brasil, the abusive relationship of Marcos Häter and Emilly Araújo did not seem to leave anyone shocked. Bad words, intimidation, manipulation and aggression didn’t prevent the aggressor from winning 77% of the vote to stay in the house of BBB. However, the sheriff of the Women’s Police Station in Rio de Janeiro started an investigation about Marcos’s assaults and than he was expelled from the program.
Image Source: Reproduction
Perhaps the biggest difference between countries is that Brazil is still afraid to take another step and formalize the aggressions, waiting for a solution, legal and in the society. According to the YouTube blogger Alexandra Gurgel “#MeToo encourages other women to speak, because unfortunately all cases of harassment, rape, abuse and domestic violence are cases that represent a small portion of the people that report. Because the vast majority of women don’t report it. The vast majority of women are afraid to speak, they don’t know if it really happened, they don’t know what has happened. They are afraid”.
Left to right: Mariana Xavier and Cris Vianna (Image Source: Instagram)
Maitê Proença, an actress with more than 38 years of career, gave a statement on Roda Vida, show of TV Cultura, in which she claims to have suffered harassment during her career. Without mentioning names or events the actress says that producers, actors and directors can end the career of those who report. “Sometimes the guy spends 10 years tearing you out because you haven’t given in. It eliminate your work”.
Khaila Garcia is a journalism student in Cásper Líbero. She loves to write about movies and is always searching more about these world. She thinks that the dimension of Hollywood against brazilian performing arts are something that we need to consider to measure size of the impact that the news had. “Globo broadcast industry is a very large cultural industry that has great impact in Brazil. So when you discover that an actor like José Mayer was involved in harassment cases it is very shocking mainly to our culture. Hollywood has a global impact. […] Everyone has access to Hollywood, you don’t have to be American to feel that you belong there. Hollywood has placed itself everywhere for many years”. José Mayer shocked Brazil with his actions, but Harvey Weinstein shocked the world.
According to the Youtube channel of celebrity news Inside OK! OK!, many actresses were encouraged to talk about harassment and rape in Hollywood after The New York Times published that, for 30 years, the well-known producer Harvey Weinstein bought the victims with legal agreements. Among them are Ashley Judd (Olympus Has Fallen), Rose McGowan (Scream), Asia Argento (Marie Antoinette), Mira Sorvino (Mighty Aphrodite), Gwyneth Paltrow (Emma) and Angelina Jolie (Hearts in Love). Rosanna Arquette (Pulp Fiction) paid a bigger price, because Harvey did what he said he’d do: sink the actress’s career.
In the letter that José Mayer published redeeming himself for what happened to the costume designer, the attacker says he’s “the fruit of a generation that has learned, mistakenly, that sexist, invasive and abusive attitudes can be disguised as jokes. You can’t. They aren’t”.
Brazilian cinema and television still don’t have a story as deep, old and dense as the Hollywood universe. We still don’t have Oprah Winfrey and Natalie Portman taking against abusive workplace. There are several cases of harassment in Brazil, but it is necessary to overcome fear and press charges. They need more united voices, voices tired of harassment, sexist places and fear.