| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation in social anthropology at the University of Oslo, discusses female vulnerability and sexuality in relations to gender, poverty, and power in Fortaleza: a large city in North Eastern Brazil.
Throughout the dissertation, I have discussed sexuality, the female body, gender relations, and reproduction in specific historical, economical and social contexts. The main focus has been on the poor women of Jardim Verde, and the struggles they have to fight in order to sustain a dignified life. The vast poverty I encountered in Jardim Verde entrapped the most vulnerable women, such as Marisa, in webs of suffering, which she was unable to escape. This web, which connected history, poverty, gender, sexuality, bodies, reproduction, and power, contributed to the procreation of pain and misery within individual bodies.
I have chosen to write about a group and individuals that contradicted the general idea of a well-functioning citizen. On the one hand, these women represent one of the most marginalised groups within Brazil. On the other hand, however, they reflect, in essence, the vulnerability of women in general. When I approached specific social dysfunctions, I was able to reveal some of the fundamental structures governing Brazil and how these contribute to the reproduction of inequality and suffering. On a community level, the patterns that I identified were hidden in the relational dimension of relationships between men and women, as well as among family and friends. On an institutional level, however, the conflict was between people and the system.
In this respect, the challenges that I posed were to contextualise the living conditions of these women, in order to reveal not only what they experienced, but to also explore why they had these experiences. By this I mean to reveal how poverty afflicted their lives and the source of their vulnerability. I analysed the multiple layers of sexuality in order to reveal the female body and sexuality as a contested field where political economy and structures of power are negotiated and embodied. | nor |