“Ela Vale um Time de Futebol”: Gender, Victory, and Loss in Brazilian World Cup and Miss Universe Press Coverage, 1954–62

This paper compares analyses of victory and loss in World Cup soccer and Miss Universe contests in the Brazilian press in 1954, 1958, and 1962. The examination focuses on newspapers in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador (the cities from which the Miss Brazils hailed in these years), but also includes references to cultural artifacts and intellectual history on race, gender, and nationalism in Brazil. On June 29, 1954 the front cover of the Diário Carioca displayed an article by Danton Jobim under the title “Não sabemos perder,” or “We don’t know how to lose.” In the article, Jobim berated Brazil’s inability to accept loss in World Cup soccer while pointing out a similar lack of sportsmanship in the Miss Brazil contest. Nonetheless, the Brazilian press did not express World Cup and Miss Universe victory and loss in the same terms. While the press often explained defeat in the Miss Universe pageants in ways that deflected blame from the young, light-skinned women who represented the nation abroad, the press often blamed loss in World Cup soccer on the male players, most famously (and tragically) on the Afro-Brazilian Moacir Barbosa in 1950. Through an examination of racialized and gendered descriptions of loss and victory, this paper provides a reflection on individuality, collectivity, gender, race, and representation in Brazil at a time of increasing attention to its reputation abroad.