On last Thursday (16), Mc Guimê and Antônio, known as “Cara de Sapato ”, were expelled from the Brazilian version of the TV reality show “Big Brother ”. Both were accused of harassing the Mexican participant, Dania Mendez, at the last leader’s party, that happened on Wednesday (15). According to images, it is possible to identify Mc Guimê touching her body without her permission while they were talking with other participants. Also, Cara de Sapato, clearly drunk, kissed Dania and held her on the bed against her will.
error after error after error
After those images were broadcast live on Globoplay, the digital platform of the TV channel Globo, the public rapidly started to accuse them of harassment. The subjects “harass” and “expulsion” were trending topics on Twitter during the day. Beside that, the audience was asking for Globo’s pronunciation, which happened only on the live program. During Thursday afternoon, the Telemundo production, a TV channel, talked with the Mexican participant, who was on the reality show “La Casa de Los Famosos” before coming to Brazil. They asked Dania about what she remembered of the party and how she felt about Mc Guimê and Cara de Sapato’s harassments against her. She answered that both attitudes were not consensual. The conversation between the victim and the channel was broadcast on the TV program, exposing her unnecessarily.
Tadeu Schmidt, the broadcaster of BBB23, announced the decision of expelling Guimê and Antônio to the public and to the reality show participants. During his speech, he barely explained what caused the expulsion of both. Moreover, it is necessary to address the lack of an appropriate approach of the subject to the victim, who felt guilty by their elimination. It is explicit the vulnerability of Dania at the moment that Sapato ask her what she said during the afternoon’s conversation. Even the other participants were confused about what exactly occurred. Because of this, there is a debate about how those attitudes can be spectacularized by the reality show.
There are no justifications, but there are circumstances
The fact is that BBB23 lasts three months, whose participants have no contact with the external world, only living and “playing” with the same people the whole day and enjoying parties consuming a lot of alcohol is considered a form to turn this whole interaction into a spectacle. It is proven that the abuse of alcohol consumption can bring serious consequences, one of which can be sexual violence. Obviously, this is not a reason for those crimes, but it can create a place with perfect circunstances and facilitate them to happen more commonly.
Furthermore, Mc Guimê’s wife, Lexa, who is a famous Brazilian singer, went public on social media, after being aware of what her husband did. She declared that this situation evolving his expulsion is a “nightmare”. Unfortunately, Guimê’s attitude is being associated with her name, because he cheated on her in front of millions of people.
The end this time, but not the end forever
Sadly, it is not the first time that a woman suffered sexual harassment on Big Brother Brazil. In total, there were 7 cases of harassment inside the house. The first case happened in 2012, when Daniel Echaniz was expelled after being accused of rape involving a woman that was drunk after a party.
It is important to address that those attitudes towards Dania are a crime. There are many types of harassment: moral, sexual, psychological, and virtual. The Brazilian Criminal Code guarantees in article 216-A that every action that causes discomfort in order to gain sexual advantages is considered harassment. The Civilian Police from Rio de Janeiro initiated a police investigation into the BBB23 case. Every video footage will be investigated by the delegate Viviane da Costa Ferreira Pinto from the western zone of RJ.
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The article above was edited by Clarissa Palácio.
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