Assignment on Role of Troubled

Running head: ROLE OF TROUBLED ‘GENDER’ IN MADAME SATA (2002)
ROLE OF TROUBLED ‘GENDER’
IN MADAME SATA (2002)
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author Note:

1ROLE OF TROUBLED ‘GENDER’ IN MADAME SATA (2002)
Introduction
Karim Aïnouz’s biopic Madame Sata present before us the story of an individual
whose gender identity neither masculinised nor feminised intersecting with his race and
religion. Through the life of Joao, Karim enacts the vision of gender and its role within the
context of Lapa town combining the ancestral African religious beliefs. The paper focuses on
the process of transformation from the perspective of a gender role reversal from Joao
Francisco to Madame Sata. The paper aims to discuss how a protagonist rebel against the
patriarchal norms using his body and religious beliefs to counter the male patriarchy
engraved within Brazilian society for ages.
Discussion
Joao has been raised in Lapa as an adult who is in Rio’s red-light district, a
community primarily marginalised in Brazil. It was a big dream for Joao to become a cabaret
dancer which explore his wildly creative personality (Butler 1988 p.520-521).
Gender: A religious perspective
The film shows in the first how Joao imitates femininity on mounting the stage in
Lapa performing mulatta that links to African religious heritage. He seeks pleasure getting
dressed into a mythical figure which makes him desire that both masculinity and femininity
go hand in hand. The aggressive masculinity, as well as sensual femininity, are
simultaneously portrayed in Joao without the manipulation of his six feet tall physique.
Religion plays a role in the identity of gender which can be seen through his performance.
Orishala, who is a manifestation of the Yemaya to play importance in his life who is a spirit
of motherhood and sea (Addy 2019).
Gender: A rebel against societal norms
In the first stage performance as the mulatta - Jamacy, he is costumed in a skirt
wearing makeup but the audience will be able to see his masculine facial features like bare
chest appearing slightly softened and feminised. His dance is not concerned with hiding his
masculinity to allow the feminism characteristics to emerge, somewhat he manipulated his
masculinity to bring out afro-feminism attributes besides the scripted mulatta which was
restricted in the hetero-patriarchal environment of Brazil society. In the movie, the
protagonist uses his body as a medium to create a space and having a world that allows him
to re-create other lives lead by another gender (Bezerra 2013 p. 79-83). He poses a threat to
the societal values by occupying a dual position- being a male turning the males into his