Embodiments of Women in Brazilian Football: An Intersectional Perspective in Light of History

The article aims to understand the construction of embodiments among women in Brazilian football, focusing on a football team in the state of Goiás, Brazil. To this end, a historiographical research approach was developed, employing qualitative methods centered on period documents (newspapers) and iconographic sources, alongside interviews with women players to recount their bodily experiences in shaping the history of football in Goiás and Brazil. Our premise is that the embodiments of these women are shaped by pressures regarding the positioning of their bodies and the image of women in Brazilian society, highlighting the constraints on their bodies during the historically defined period from 1980 to 2023. In this context, the categories of gender, race, and social class intertwine with corporeality in an intersectional understanding. The results indicate that, despite their pioneering efforts, these women and their embodiments have been historically rendered invisible in the state of Goiás and, arguably, in Brazil, which is metaphorically recognized as the "country of football" (DaMatta et al., 1982). The struggles and resistances of these women within a male-dominated field, as asserted by Bourdieu, demonstrate that women operate in a counter-hegemonic space, and that their bodies/embodiments represent not only a cultural expression but also a form of social resistance.