Thirteenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

From 2016 - 2019 in Brazil, the conservative backlash against so-called “gender ideology” framed gender dissidence as one reason for the country’s perceived decline and played a central role in the rise of Bolsonarismo, a movement increasingly identified as fascist. Amidst this gender-hostile environment, I examine the trans politics of Brazil’s first transexual men’s (their term) soccer team, the Meninos Bons de Bola. The team’s shifting approaches to visibility - from their creation in 2016 to the presidential elections in 2018 - provide a lens through which to assess the activist tactics of LGBTQ+ movements as a response to the strategies of the religious right. Drawing on two naked and semi-naked photoshoots with the MBB, and on an oral history with team’s founder and captain, Raphael H. Martins, this essay asserts that the Meninos’ use of nudity during this period of governmental change exposes their resistance to the machinations of Brazilian fascism, including censorship, backlash, and shaming. By asserting that their bodies on the pitch and in the locker room is “art, activism, and resistance” (the team’s tagline), the MBB use the national sport to enact trans politics and to assert belonging beyond the bounds of normative citizenship.