Transnational Sisterhood?

Brazilian
Feminisms Facing Prostitution
Adriana Piscitelli

During the 1980s, the sex wars concerning feminism and prostitution had little effect on
Brazilian feminisms. Although prostitution was far from central in this second wave of
feminism in Brazil, which was organized around fighting the military regime, struggling
for 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 with
transnational articulations have increasingly adopted an abolitionist position, denying the
differences between prostitution and sex trafficking and refusing to listen to the voices of
organized prostitutes. In this article I analyze this complex process, based on research
conducted between 2004 and 2011 with an anthropological approach on transnational sex
markets and sex trafficking, in which I interviewed Brazilian prostitutes in this country
and 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 prostitucin
tuvieron poco impacto sobre los feminismos brasileos. Aunque la prostitucin no
constituy un tema central de debate en la segunda ola del feminismo en Brasil, que
estaba organizado en torno a la oposicin contra el rgimen militar, las luchas a favor de
la democracia y la amnista y la confrontacin contra aspectos concretos de la dominacin
masculina despertaron la curiosidad, y hubo proximidad entre algunas feministas y
prostitutas. Durante las dcadas de 2000 y 2010, redes y coaliciones de feministas
brasileas con articulaciones transnacionales han adoptado cada vez ms posiciones
abolicionistas, negando las diferencias entre prostitucin y trfico con fines de explotacin
sexual y negndose a escuchar las voces de las prostitutas organizadas. En este artculo
analizo este proceso complejo, basndome en investigaciones realizadas entre 2004 y 2011,
en una perspectiva antropolgica, sobre mercados del sexo transnacionales y trfico con
fines de explotacin sexual, en las que entrevist a prostitutas brasileas en Brasil y en el
exterior, a feministas y a agentes en diferentes puestos del Estado brasileo.
Key words: transnational feminisms, prostitution, Brazil, sex trafficking

uring the decades of 2000 and 2010, networks and coalitions of Brazilian
feminists linked to transnational feminist articulations have increasingly
adopted positions against recognizing prostitution as a labor activity. In this
movement, they refuse to listen to the voices of prostitutes and to recognize
differences between prostitution and human trafficking for the purposes of
sexual exploitation. This position is far from limited to Brazilian feminisms

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2014 Policy Studies Organization. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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(Bernstein, 2012; Cheng, 2013), but it stands out in Brazil, considering the relations between prostitution and feminists in the recent history of feminism in the
country. In this text I analyze this process based on studies I have conducted with
an anthropological approach since 2004 on transnational sex markets, human
trafficking, and feminisms in Brazil.1
In the first part of the article I make some comments about the concepts related
to prostitution and human trafficking in Brazilian feminism. I then consider how
some currents became more visible in this debate, taking into account their
articulations with the state in a transnational reading, an approach that considers
the relevance of supranational entities in the regulation of the conduct of states
and the importance of the networks of activist groups thatfocused on specific
themesexercise transnational pressure on nation-states and local activisms
(Sharma & Gupta, 2006).
My main argument is that in Brazil the feminist scenario is still relatively
heterogeneous in terms of positions taken regarding prostitution. The abolitionist
approaches to prostitution and human trafficking in important lines of transnational feminisms are especially dominant in particular organizations of Brazilian
women and in certain versions of youth feminisms. Mainly because of their
relationship with the state the configuration in which the abolitionist feminist
voices are inserted has been making these positions increasingly visible. This
articulation is integrated to a process in which the Brazilian state, responding to
transnational political pressure, grants particular relevance to fighting human
trafficking. The struggle against this crime becomes an expression of modernity
and even of civilization (Olivar, 2014), and the debate and actions aimed at this
problem become widespread and are disseminated in various forums, including
campaigns of social and religious movements.

Prostitution in the Brazilian Feminist Debate

In international debates within the feminist movement, prostitutionand later
pornographyhave been divisive issues. During the 1980s, the disputes shaped
a sharp debate known as the sex wars, whose effect was the creation of
dichotomic camps around these issues (Rubin, 1984). When feminist groups in
the Anglo-Saxon world were engaged in the sex wars debate, the organization
of feminist groups in Brazil revolved around other issues (Piscitelli, 2008).
During the 1970s and 1980s, prostitution did not appear among the main concerns of the movement. This period, identified by various authors as a second
wave of Brazils feminist movement, was focused on opposition to the military
regime, struggles for democratization and amnesty, and specific struggles
against male domination, confronting violence against women and the right to
pleasure (Corra, 1984; Matos, 2010; Pedro, 2006; Pinto, 2003; Shumaher &
Vargas, 1993).
According to authors who study the history of feminism in Brazil, the circulation of ideas across borders and an international articulation among feminists has
been present in the different waves. In the second wave, two lines of thought
influenced the formation of feminism in Brazil, one from France and another
from the United States. The one from the United States focused more on personal
and cultural transformation and led to the translation of books that dealt with

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223

issues such as sexuality, contraception and abortion, and the organization of

groups that reflected on the body, sexuality, reproduction, health care, and stereotypes in education. Some groups were organized around the struggle against
violence against women (Goldberg, 1982; Sorj & Montero, 1985). Through interclass articulations with womens community groups, demands were formulated
concerning access to basic urban infrastructure and to child care (da Almeida
Teles, 1993; Moraes, 1996; Pedro, 2006; Rago, 2003; Sarti, 2001).
Corra and Olivar (2014) affirm that in these decades, prostitution provoked
intellectual curiosity, and some feminists frequently equated prostitution to marriage as a strategy for critical analysis of traditional gender relations. Sectors of
the feminist movement and of the womens movement that had organic ties with
leftist political parties or with progressive churches considered prostitution as
the culmination of capitalist exploitation of the female body.
The narratives of feminists and prostitutes interviewed in my studies suggest
that, although prostitution did not constitute one of the main issues of feminism
in this period, it generated interest. Discussions about the issue led to new
perceptions about sexuality. The statement of one feminist from So Paulo highlights 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 the
dictatorship, 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 this
film is incredible; there is no moral duality, the whore and the other. It doesnt have
this thing of the sexuality of the prostitute necessarily as a disgrace. Those women
had autonomy, a command of the body, of pleasure. . . . I also remember an
extraordinary march; we all went and said, we are all prostitutes. This was all
before the 80s, it was definitely a libertarian state of spiritcreative, inventive
the institutionalization came later. (M. L. Quartim de Moraes, personal communication, August 27, 2010).

Gabriela Leite, founder of the first organization of prostitutes in Brazil and of

the 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 positive. The situation changed over time, expressed since the 1990s either through
open rejectionon on the part of feminists who refused to listen to the voices of the
prostitutes, or through an ambivalent relationship. She affirmed, Society
changed and this is reflected in the movements, which are much more conservative than in the 1990s, given that then they were already more conservative
than in the 1970s (personal communication, Rio de Janeiro, 2010; Feministas de
todo o Brasil presentes no I Encontro Nacional da AMB e Oficina 3, 2006; Jornal
da Marcha Mundial de Mulheres, 2010; Organizao Sempre Viva, 2014). Feminists with important work on the national scene affirmed that prostitution was
exploitation against women. At the same time, positions such as that of Gabriela
Leite, which affirmed the exercise of prostitution as a choice and a right, were
seen as disturbing because prostitution was the expression of a concept that was
dear to feminism, autonomy.
Ambivalent and negative readings of prostitution have expanded since the late
1990s. This expansion is related to the reconfigurations of the feminist movement
in Brazil, which, based on the redemocratization of the country in 1985, involve
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that spread throughout Brazil, coordinated in part by militants from the movement of the 1970s and 1980s, and

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articulations with the state (Pinto, 2006; Shumaher & Vargas, 1993). This third
moment of feminism in Brazil raised questions about the autonomy of the movement and dangers present in the appropriation of the feminist discourse by
official entities (Shumaher & Vargas, 1993).
Unanimously negative readings about prostitution were promoted when it
was linked to sexual tourism and to international human trafficking for purposes
of 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 its
connection with human trafficking was made later, in the formulations of NGOs
that articulated with transnational feminist networks and worked in cities of the
Brazilian Northeast, considered the target of sexual tourism (Chame, 1998;
Pestrello & Dias, 1996; Piscitelli, 2012). These interpretations, as well as the
negative perceptions about prostitution, have expanded since the turn of the
century, in the realm of the expansion of the trafficking debate in the national
arena and the intensification of transnational feminist articulations.
I refer to these articulations and allude empirically to feminist networks structured through transnational borders not necessarily engaged with the initial
transnational feminisms theoretical perspectives. These perspectives, connected to Third World and post-colonial feminisms, were seriously concerned
with how race and global capitalism position women in extremely diverse ways
(Alexander & Mohanty, 1997; Grewal & Kaplan, 1994). Taking into account the
differences among women, the idea was to theorize alterity in readings that
allowed the understanding of how the histories of inequalities have structured
diverse values, desires, and needs in women of different groups and classes in
the world (Gupta, 2006).
These insights fed a rich feminist scholarship that challenged politics of localization anchored in oppositions between global and local, center and periphery,
favoring analytical lines that cut through these oppositions and called for a
displacement also in terms of political organization and mobilization through
borders (Grewal & Kaplan, 1994). Dialoguing with these perspectives, some
studies have analyzed United Nations agencies and organized groups of women,
considering the importance of the notion of womens human rights to challenge
gender oppressions (Collins, Falcn, Lodhia, & Talcott, 2010), and also taking into
account how those organizations reproduce geopolitical, class, and educational
hierarchies. Other studies have focused on the actions of transnational feminist
networks. Critical readings about these networks observe that their work across
national borders does not necessarily activate the theoretical premises of transnational feminisms. The expression transnational feminisms has spread and
been apropriated in diverse locations, acquiring different meanings (de Lima
Costa, 2006; Nagar, 2002; Thayer, 2001). It has been incorporated even to denominate feminist practices that are seen as erasing key issues initially raised by
transnational feminisms, such as the challenge to the idea of global sisterhood
that international feminisms promoted, ignoring differences among women
(Patil, 2011). Although transnational feminist networks use the expression transnational feminisms to talk about themselves, and others use the term to talk
about them, these networks sometimes reiterate linear notions of gender inequality and of feminism connected to the idea of global sisterhood.

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225

These networks influenced national and regional feminisms in Brazil during

the 2000s, a fourth wave characterized by work along with arenas of action in
the realm of civil society and at the borders between it and the state, and by the
action of feminism from a transnational perspective (Matos, 2010). This moment
coincides with the rise of counter-hegemonic social forces, the solidarity and
global justice movements, which were organized in opposition to the neoliberal
regime. According to Alvarez (2009), this reaction stimulated resistance movements that involved a broad range of actors outside the state. Alvarez affirms that
new popular forms of feminism allowed women who were ignored by the
movement to transform their position in it through ties with national and global
struggles. In Brazil, these feminisms, together with the young feminists, which
for the first time presented an agenda different from that of previous generations
(de Papa & Souza, 2009), produced effervescent currents in the movement. This is
the context in which the visibility of negative feminist readings about prostitution and of linear connections between prostitution and trafficking in women in
Brazil has intensified.

Feminisms and Human Trafficking

In terms of organized civil society, at the turn of the millennium in Brazil the
organization against human trafficking was associated with movements that
supported the rights of children and not of women (Piscitelli, 2008). In the decade
of 2000, the movement against human trafficking grew in the frame of political
pressure and also financial and technical support from supranational multilateral
agencies 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 Human
Trafficking in 2005 and 2006. This process, with the participation of the Special
Secretariat of Public Policies for Women, included a broad consultation of society
(Ministrio da Justia, 2007) which, according to members of organizations of
prostitutes, has conceded little space to sexual workers.
Various organized groups of prostitutes in Brazil, with differing positions in
relation to the discussion about regulation and legalization of the activity (Olivar,
2014), are integrated in networks including the National Network of Prostitutes
and the National Federation of Sex Workers. Some prostitutes are also linked to
the 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 prostitutes or former prostitutes with the proposal to be a social organization against
the regulation of prostitution (GMEL, n.d.).
In recent discussions about human trafficking, the relevance of the articulation
between the government and the supranational multilateral agencies, particularly
the United Nations Office against Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), appears more
diluted. The clear driving force of the entities that provide support to the rights
of children in the debate are also diluted because different historical causes in the
human rights agenda in Brazil began to use the language of human trafficking
(Sprandel & Mansur, 2010). Finally, through the creation of state and municipal
commissions to confront this crime and the carrying out of countless training

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courses and campaigns, in Brazil and abroad, a capillarization process was produced 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 its
Fraternity Campaign for the following year, using multipliers to take the
problem to parochial churches in municipalities throughout the country. In a
global context in which Brazil is attracting international migration, there is a
revigorated interest from the state in policing the Brazilian borders. In remote
parts of the country such as the Amazon region, these campaigns directed toward
the protection of the local indigenous population frequently actualize civilizatory
discourses.
Human trafficking also became a relevant issue for important Brazilian
womens coalitions. During the 2000s and 2010, national feminist articulations
strengthened and amplified the isolated feminist voices in NGOs raised years
before in the northeast of the country. These articulations, linked to transnational
movements, reacted to the effects of globalization on women, choosing as one of
their preferential targets the commodification of the body and focusing particularly on sexual exploitation and sex trafficking. The connection between national
feminist articulations and transnational feminist movements influenced by abolitionist ideas (Barry, 1997) is important because it is in the context of these
articulations that sectors of Brazilian feminism publicly endorse the fight against
prostitution 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 Brazilian
states connected to different political parties and integrated in international
South/South networks. The World March of Women Against Violence and
Poverty took place in 2000 and was linked to the antiglobalization movement as
a large mobilization that joined women from throughout the world in a campaign
against poverty and violence (Nobre & Faria, 2003).
My field notes from the panel on prostitution of the 2010 World March of
Women offer examples of the dissemination of a negative view of prostitution
and the connections made between decriminalization and sex trafficking. Some
3,000 women participated in this action of the March, with delegations from
nearly all Brazilian states.
The group came to gather some 35 women. The mediators are a representative
of the March of Women, a white woman, apparently a university student, in her
early twenties; a former prostitute from a group linked to the Catholic Pastoral of
the Marginalized Women; a black women, about 50 years old, who appears to be
low-income. Representatives of other feminist organizations are also present.
The former prostitute explains why her group decided to struggle for
nonregulation. In their vision, prostitution is the greatest form of violence against
women. Projects (for regulation) would facilitate the life of the exploiters, because
they would be decriminalized, which would facilitate trafficking in women,
because they could take the women any place they wanted. She affirmed that she
knows the psychological trauma that prostitutes suffer, that many need to do this
to buy milk, that the majority are black or Afro-descendants, which speaks of
poverty.
This womans talk is powerful. She has the authority of experience, of someone
who was a prostitute. The women seated in the circle agree with her. They offer

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227

examples of terrible experiences, such as in the Amazon region, where prostitution involves girls of 1011, and those who are 1617 are already expended. They
affirm that prostitution is violence, and violence cannot be regulated. Prostitution
is 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 prostitution, 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 a
position against prostitution. The women from different states were enthusiastic
about this and affirmed, by speaking out, that they would take this motion to
their organizations and neighborhoods (Field diary, Author, October, 3, 2010).
Some highlights of this panel are the identification of prostitution as sexist
violence, the rejection of the right to work as a prostitute, and the argument of
poverty. This argument also led to the possibility of non-forced prostitution being
inconceivable. Other significant points are the idea of trauma, psychological
suffering, and pain linked to prostitution, which evoke the most effective aspects
of the influential issues linked to humanitarian policies (Fassin, 2007), and the
link between prostitution and human trafficking.
These points show how some feminist articulations and organizations are
facing the discussion about prostitution in the human trafficking debate. The
most visible trends in the public debate tend to consider prostitution to be sexual
exploitation, thus evoking abolitionist ideas and opposing its consideration as
work.

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 is
closely linked to the first European feminist movements, proposed abolishing the
regulation of prostitution found in various countries since the second half of the
19th century. The abolitionists struggled against the medical, police, and religious arbitrariness to which prostitutes were submitted, considering themselves
as liberators of the slaves. The defense of prostitutes, who were seen as victims of
an immoral system, was associated with crusades of purification.
Since the late 19th century, narratives about sexual trafficking of women fed
and favored abolitionism. The 1949 United Nations Convention against human
trafficking and the exploitation of and prostitution of others is considered one
of the most representative documents of this movement. According to Maqueda
Abreu (2009), it presented central aspects of the abolitionist ideology including:
(1) consider prostitution as incompatible with the dignity and value of the
human person because it places in danger the well-being of the individual, the
family, and community; (2) link prostitution and human trafficking; (3) reject
any suggestion of legal tolerance toward prostitution; (4) criminalize all criminal activity associated with prostitution; and (5) consider someone who exercises prostitution as a victim and, therefore, outside the reach of any legal
intervention. This final aspect is linked to the fact that the consent of the prostitute is considered irrelevant, so the principle of autonomy of will is not
recognized.

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Since the second half of the 1970s, at the confluence between an expansion,
diversification, transnationalization, and relative normalization of prostitution
and a modification of ideas about sexuality came about, the abolitionist discourses changed, exchanging the old arguments linked to morality, sin, and
lasciviousness for others of violence against women. Prostitution came to be a
symbol of this violence, and prostitutes were seen as slaves who should be freed
and should be made aware of the oppression that they suffered.
Another important principle of radical abolitionism was born in this
context, the rejection of the right to work as a prostitute, which goes against
universal human rights. In this line of thinking, prostitution is sexual exploitation because in it sexual pleasure is obtained through the abusive use
of a persons sexuality, annulling her rights to dignity, equality, autonomy,
and well-being. For this reason, radical abolitionism intends to penalize the
client, who is guilty of violence against the human rights of women involved in
prostitution.
In terms of feminism in Brazil, statements from feminists taken in So Paulo
and Rio de Janeiro and the positions assumed by feminists in various public
meetings attended during the fieldwork offer a heterogeneity of positions. Some
feminists reiterate ideas with abolitionist echoes. Others manifest an intermediary position, affirming the impossibility of opposing the organized prostitutes
who want to regulate their profession, and yet expressing as feminists a difficulty
with an activity that makes women objects.
There are others who reveal a more open position. They affirm the strength
and empowerment of women who work as prostitutes in Brazil, they are aware
of the discrimination of which they are objects and of the advantages of this
activity in relation to other poorly paid services in which they may be even more
subjugated. These interpretations, which recognize that feminism has great difficulty advancing in this debate, also include perspectives that situate prostitution
in the realm of the right of choice of women and reject the idea that the prostitute
is commodifying her body and other women are not; the difference is in the
moralism with which any sexual activity is perceived. They also affirm that the
church and NGOs control prostitutes in Brazil.
This does not mean that these perspectives necessarily coincide with those of
the groups or networks to which the women interviewed belong. The fieldwork
shows that, in the realm of these different positions about prostitutions, at times
there are distinctions between the positions of the leaders of the NGOs and the
articulations and positions that members or representatives of the base linked
to these organizations manifest in public meetings with feminists or with government officials.
Among the feminists interviewed, those linked to the World March of
Women most clearly reject the idea of considering prostitution as work.
According to these activists, the other organizations consider prostitution as a
profession to be regulated and perceive it as a choice located in the field of
individual rights, but the study shows that, contrary to what these activists
think, there is no consensus in the organizations whose members frequently
avoid discussing the issue of prostitution. A number of them make distinctions
between forced prostitutionlinked to moral, financial, or physical coercion
and non-forced sex professionals.

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This heterogeneity also seems to be present in some of the new expressions of

feminism, such as in the Marcha das Vadias (Slut Walk) and in alternative feminist
publications on the Internet. Interviews conducted with organizers and participants in these marches in different cities of the state of So Paulo reveal a broad
diversity and a lack of consensus as well as a certain care about addressing the
theme. According to a participant in the World March of Women in the city of So
Paulo, a poster with the slogan Neither saint, nor whore was removed after a
reflection about the inconveniences of this polarization (personal communication, 2012).3 To these manifestations it is necessary to add the ideas presented in
the alternative press on the Internet, in which some young feminists recognize
prostitution as work.4 Among the young feminists there are also some radical
university students who, hiding their names and institutional affiliations, promoted belligerent attacks on students who supported the rights of prostitutes in
2013 (Figure 1).

Figure 1. What you call individual choice we call heteropatriarchal terrorism. Abolition of
prostitution. Poster placed at the entrance to the room where an academic group worked with
prostitution. Federal University at Santa Catarina, Brazil
Source: Photo by Thaddeus Blanchette, 2013.

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Although they hold different positions on the topic, even the Brazilian feminists who are against prostitution respect the prostitute associations as organized
womens groups. Meanwhile, although some of those interviewed who are part
of organizations and articulations believe there is an urgent need to resolve the
problem of human trafficking, others affirm that neither trafficking or prostitution are relevant on the current agenda of Brazilian feminism. These opinions
coincide with the perception of the governments General Coordinator of Access
to Justice and Combat against Violence of the Special Secretariat of Policies for
Women (SPM). In 2010, in reference to human trafficking, she said that the
Secretariat had found few partnerships among the feminists, We have more
relations with groups aimed specifically at human trafficking. We have little space
in the feminist movement to discuss the issue (personal communication,
Brasilia, 2010).
The question is how the abolitionist voices stand out in public debate in the
realm of these different positions among feminists.

Abolitionism in the State?

In April 2008, the Secretariat of Public Policies for Women conducted a Workshop on Female Prostitution, and later planned the First National Conference
about 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 for
Human Rights, feminist organizations, organizations of sexual workers, and
students. Although it was invited, the National Network of Prostitutes did not
participate, but representatives of the National Federation of Sex Workers were
present.
In terms of feminist organizations, feminist articulations were invited, some
that were openly against the regulation of prostitution, and others that were more
cautious but which were also present and participated with a representative who
is a former prostitute from GMEL, the collective against regulating the profession. In this government space, in which members of the ministries and government staff had apparently open, moderate positions in relation to the debate
about prostitution, some feminist voices stood out, those against recognition of
prostitution as work.
In this debate, the diversity in Brazilian feminism was erased. Despite the
existing heterogeneity, abolitionist positions became united, and the ties between
prostitution and human trafficking became visible, but this visibility is possible
because this positioning is echoed in positions thatin the realm of the statego
beyond 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 adopting
an openly abolitionist and criminalizing position. These authors also affirm that
the abolitionist positions, both mild and extreme ones, circulate on the social
plane in Brazil, even among feminists, contrasting with the neutrality of a broad
range of actors located in the top political arena. My perception differs, considering a variety of factors, including the persistence of laws fed by the abolitionist

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ideal that confuse human trafficking with travel to exercise prostitution and legal
decisions that refer to these ideas.
One of the problems found in the discussions and state policies about on
trafficking is Brazilian legislation on the topic. The Brazilian government ratified
the Palermo Protocol in March 2004, but the Brazilian Penal Codes reference to
trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation is not exactly coincident with the
Protocol. In the Penal Code, in keeping with the abolitionist United Nations
Convention of 1949, it was considered trafficking (of women) to promote or
facilitate the entrance in national territory of women who come to exercise prostitution 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 of
violence, serious threats, or fraud and profit-making purposes.
According to federal attorney Ela Wiecko V. de Castilho (2006) the term facilitate found in the Penal Code encompasses actions such as providing money,
documents, or a passport, or purchasing clothes or utensils for travel. Following
other abolitionist principles, according to the Penal Code, free consent does not
negate the crime. Considering that, in practice, migrants or people who travel to
carry out an activity always require and receive help, nearly any form of migration or movement to work in the sex industry can be seen as trafficking.5
The National Policy for Confronting Human Trafficking uses the definition
found in the Palermo Protocol, chapter 1, article 2 (United Nations, 2000), but in
articles 24, it refers to mere intermediation, promotion, or facilitation in the
movement, lodging, or taking in of people for purposes of exploitation, a
non-defined term. Although it follows the Palermo Protocol, this policy incorporates abolitionist aspects evoked by the Penal Code.
In terms of the application of justice, in certain instances the definition of
human trafficking found in the Palermo Protocol is used, but others use the
definition of human trafficking from the Penal Code. This leads to legal proceedings that do not recognize the capacity of women to exercise the right to their
own bodies and denies the possibility of considering prostitution as work. Prostitution is considered an element that provokes moral and familiar degradation,
and prostitutes are stigmatized as a way of establishing the place of women in
society, based on classic abolitionist concepts (de Castilho, 2008).
The state has not made any serious movements regarding the extreme abolitionist measures, such as the criminalization of clients, although this idea is not
absent from the discussions. In meetings such as the 2008 Workshop on Female
Prostitution, the representatives of the state appeared to take more neutral positions than those of the various feminists, but the procedures used to choose the
feminists to be interlocutors in this debate about public policies aimed at
prostitutionaccording to criteria for representativenessemphasize only some
voices. One member of this Secretariat said of these choices:
We tried to conduct decentralized work, we encouraged state and municipal
agencies that implement policies for women to contact these groups and debate the
issue. And then we wind up having more direct contact with these [groups] which
have a national repercussion. (Personal communication, Brasilia, 2010).

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

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produced by GMEL about the the legal mark in defense of women in a situation
of prostitution, in partnership with the Catholic Pastoral of Marginalized
Women, 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 positions
itself as openly abolitionist, affirming that this means that the government
should guarantee alternatives for those who want to leave prostitution and
prevent the entrance of others by offering suitable public policies. But this has
not taken place in Brazil sixty years after the International Abolitionist Convention (GMEL, n.d.).

Final Considerations
Studies conducted in different countries show that feminism is far from being
a preponderant political force in the recent discussions and actions related to
prostitution and human trafficking (Gimeno, 2012; Valiente Fernndez, 2004).
These studies come to the conclusion that agents that respond to other interests
linked to migratory policies and to efforts to gentrify citiesuse and recreate
ideas formulated by certain perspectives of feminism. Feminism has not been
decisive when political decisions are made concerning the legal status assumed
by prostitution.
Concerning the actions aimed at prostitution and human trafficking, the feminist movement in Brazil does not appear to have had a central role in stimulating
the debate, but the current configurations of the movement, particularly the
articulation of national feminist networks connected to transnational feminist
abolitionist associations that work with the state, suggest that some lines of the
feminist movement are gaining a new weight in the discussions and actions
related to these issues.
This article shows how (neo)abolitionist interpretations have not necessarily
been the predominant feminist visions in Brazil, nor are they the only ones that
exist today. Differences in opinion can be explained by the fact that some of the
feminists who participated in the autonomous movement in the second half of the
1970sa period considered more libertariannow participate in NGOs, many of
which were created in the 1980s and 1990s and which are integrated into transnational networks and articulations formed in the 2000s. These networks and
articulations are broad; they integrate various trends of womens movements that
are considered feminist, with ties to various parties and, in some cases, to religious affiliations.
This diversity, which also includes young feminist voices, is at times erased in
the articulations between feminisms and the state, in interchanges that emphasize particular feminist readings that focus on what is defined as international
womens rights, evoking global sisterhood. Meetings between organizations
and the state do not pay attention to the diversity of local feminist voices and
ignore the positions of relevant national prostitute organizations. Working with
the state or with the support of state entities, these feminist interpretations
promote certain perspectives about prostitution and human trafficking that other
transnational articulations linked to supranational entities, with agendas that

Transnational Sisterhood?

233

prioritize securitization and that are not necessarily connected to feminist interests, endorse.

About the Author

Adriana Piscitelli is a feminist social anthropologist, Professor at the University of Campinas (Brazil), National Science Research Council Researcher, and
Senior Researcher and Associate Coordinator of the State University of
Campinas/Unicamp Centre for Gender Studies (PAGU Center).

Notes
1

These 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 Southern
Europe, and the relations between feminisms in Brazil, the debates about prostitution, and human
trafficking (Piscitelli, 2008, 2012; Piscitelli et al., 2011).
2
Aidar and Castilho (1981). Documentary film.
3
In Campinas, the Coletivo das Vadias held a joint activity with the Associao de Prostitutas
Mulheres Guerreiras.
4
See Moschkovich, n.d.
5
On March 28, 2006, the Penal Code was modified by Law no. 11.106, which deals with international trafficking of people (and not women) and with adding measures related to the internal
traffic 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 knowledge of this condition, or transport, transfer, or lodge them. These modifications do not alter the
abolitionist spirit of the Penal Code.

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