Brazilian TV is
no stranger to scandal, but Friday night's final
installment of the TV Globo telenovela America
, which may air a scene involving a kiss
between two men, has created more than the usual stir. Fans
across the nation are eagerly waiting to see whether
Junior, the son of a powerful ranch owner, will go so
far as to kiss Zeca, one of the hired hands. If he
does, it would mark the first time two men have exchanged a
kiss on Brazilian television.
"I think this is
a very significant moment in Brazilian history. The
gay movement has exploded, and there's a real shift in
people's understanding of homophobia. The media is
finally catching up," James Green, author of Beyond
Carnival: Male Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century Brazil
, said in a telephone interview from Rhode
Island.
In 1998, the TV
drama Tower of Babel featured a lesbian couple,
but until America the subject of a relationship
between men had been largely taboo. Green, who is a
professor of Brazilian history and culture at Brown
University, said he believes that if Junior and
Zeca do kiss in the final chapter of America
, it could have repercussions well beyond
Brazil's borders. "Just like Will & Grace
had an influence on Mexico, the kiss on the telenovela
could have an influence across Latin America," Green said.
Globo's novelas
are translated and exported across Latin America and
around the world to countries as far away as Russia,
where they are immensely popular. For its part, Globo
is being coy about whether or not the kiss will take
place, but the controversy has already driven up
ratings and provoked a wide-ranging discussion about the
acceptance of gay men in Latin America's largest
nation.
"The final scenes
of America are an absolute secret, a surprise
from the author, Gloria Perez, to the novela's
spectators," Globo's press office said in an e-mail to the
Associated Press. "Although the scene [of the kiss] is not
yet confirmed, the subject is certainly on the lips of
the people and has stimulated discussion about the
subject."
Globo's
telenovelas are immensely popular across this nation of 183
million people, and final episodes of the most popular
novelas have been known to register audiences equal to
90% of the viewing public. According to Globo, when
Perez announced last week that the scene was being planned
the network received a flood of telephone calls and e-mails,
with about 53% of them opposing the kiss and 47% in
favor. By Monday, however, the network said about 80%
of the reaction had been in favor of the kiss.
"Without a doubt,
the fact that they are even talking about a kiss
between two men is a change for the better," said Luiz
Carlos Freitas, president of the gay rights group
Arco-Iris. "Globo, being the biggest media
conglomerate in this country, has a decisive role in
creating attitudes. It can determine the way people behave."
Globo is no
stranger to controversy. It has long used its novelas to
open public discussion about controversial subjects
such as divorce, which became legal in Brazil only in
1977, and abortion, which is still illegal. Bishop Dom
Odilio Pedro Scherer, general secretary of the
Brazilian Bishops' Conference, said the church would not
comment on the planned kiss.
And while
Portuguese-speaking Brazilians are generally more tolerant
of homosexual conduct than their neighbors in
Spanish-speaking Latin America, the country remains
something of a paradox. Judges have granted foreign
partners in gay relationships residency rights and have
authorized civil unions that grant many of the benefits of
marriage to gay couples, but there are many segments
of society that remain openly hostile to gays and
lesbians. A study conducted by the Candido Mendes
University in Rio de Janeiro found that 60% of Rio's
homosexual population had experienced some type of
harassment because of their sexual orientation, and
17% said they had experienced physical violence.
(Michael Astor, AP)
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