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Muita gente parece não entender a diferença entre uma empregada doméstica e, digamos, um garçom ou um operário de fábrica. Teoricamente, dizem, são todas ocupações igualmente humildes. A exploração (ou a falta dela) seria a mesma. Se o patrão paga o salário em dia, respeita os direitos trabalhistas e não humilha o funcionário, qual é o problema? O que existe para se pedir desculpas?
Pra começar, há uma diferença grande entre a diarista, que cobra por hora, trabalha em diversas casas e tem mais independência e poder de negociação, e a empregada doméstica que trabalha em somente uma casa, especialmente se ela dormir no serviço.
O texto abaixo, para um projeto de pesquisa que estou desenvolvendo, está em inglês mas pode ser que ajude a esclarecer um pouco a questão:
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Permanence of Slavery Traits in the Institution of the Brazilian Live-In Maid
Brazilian slavery was abolished in 1888, but its uses and customs have hardly died. Brazil is still one of the most socioeconomically unequal and unjust societies in the world. While a dynamic ruling class presides over a wealthy and modern economy, most of the country's population lives below poverty level. Naturally, a slave-holding elite used to being catered by a multitude of servants would not actually change their ways overnight. While many humble occupations in contemporary Brazil are reminiscent of slavery, there is one that keeps the worst legacy of slavery alive and approachable to any middle class Brazilian: the live-in maid.
Live-in maids are usually brought from the countryside to work on big cities. It is not uncommon for their own parents to give them away to wealthy families in hopes of providing them with better lives. In an unjust and sexist society, an uneducated girl severed from her family has but few options: she can either make a living out of her body and became a prostitute or out of the domestic skills she learned as a child and become a maid. Sometimes these underage live-in maids do not even receive salaries or go to school: it is tacitly understood that they "help around the house" in exchange for room and board. Among elite families, this custom is known as "peguei pra criar", or "we fetched her to raise her".
Most Brazilian apartments, even relatively modest one-bedrooms, are equipped with maid's quarters, usually little more than damp, windowless closets. Despite all the economic hardships the Brazilian middle class also faces, it is apparently important for their self-image and/or self-esteem to have someone even poorer under their roof to serve them. The paradox of a one-bedroom apartment with maid's quarters (making it two bedrooms, of course) is lost on most Brazilians but not on the law: architecture ordinances establish minimum standards of size, light and ventilation in order for a room to be considered a bedroom. In order to circumvent the law, most architecture firms just name the maid's quarters as "pantries", making it not their fault if future occupants house their live-in maids there.
Even though employers sell the institution of the live-in maid as a great benefit for workers, who do not have to go through the trouble and costs of renting their own place, the arrangement more closely resembles a prisoner's life - or rather, a slave's life. They are called upon to perform any menial, disgusting or heavy task a family member is unwilling to do and they cannot say no: since they have no proper job description, nothing is ever outside it. Live-in maids are always on call and they have to serve family members at all hours. They cannot use the house common areas: a live-in maid watching the soap opera on the living room or smoking on the porch on her off-hours would be well nigh impossible in Brazil - especially because, for all points and purposes, a live-in maid has no off-hours to speak of. They cannot receive guests, not even in their own little rooms, and especially not of the opposite sex. Sexual or romantic relationships are also frowned upon. One of the most recurrent complaints about live-in maids is either that they have a boyfriend outside the house or that they bring friends over.
The live-in maid's body is also closely watched and guarded, as she is always an outside, slightly inconvenient presence in a household. In most houses, any display of femininity is strictly forbidden: maids are not allowed to wear nail polish, long nails, perfume, high heels, make-up, miniskirts or body jewelry, being on the other hand usually forced to wear hairnets and uniforms. Since the live-in maid is already being called upon to replace the female homeowner in the performance of her traditional female roles, it would be intolerable if she also looked and behaved like a female. In other words, according to such diverse authors as Gutierrez, Kofes and Farias, she would be too much of a threat to the female identity of the female homeowner. In a very real sense, the live-in maid sacrifices herself so that the middle class independent Brazilian woman may pursue her professional career. Kaufman's manual to female homeowners on how to manage their live-in maids makes it painfully clear that the female Brazilian homeowner is sharply aware of the importance of this substitutive relationship.
As a part of his training as a social psychologist at USP (Universidade de São Paulo), Fernando Braga da Costa had to work for a few hours a week in an "invisible job", defined as a humble uniform-wearing occupation that required no special training. Fernando ended up working for nine years alongside the street cleaners of USP. Being a janitor on the same university where he worked as a psychologist, Fernando discovered that the uniform made him instantly invisible to friends, professors, students or co-workers he had sometimes seen just a day previously. His book Homens Invisíveis: Relatos de Uma Humilhação Social is a seminal work on social psychology, economic invisibility and political humiliation.
Naturally, this seigniorial attitude towards maids, servants and janitors could not help but reflect itself on literature, movies and the media. The above photo was published in a Folha de São Paulo social column earlier this year. The caption merely read: "Fulana, vestindo Fórum Tufi Duek, na casa do estilista.” (Fulana, wearing clothes by Fulano, at his house.) Both women look perhaps the same age, but there is a world of difference between them. One's body language is victorious and exuberant; the other's is submissive and shy. One's body is ornamented and feminine; the other's is hidden under her manly working clothes. Interestingly enough, the newspaper not only recognizes the existence of only one of them, but also neglects to indicate which one is it (ie. "on the left, Fulana" etc) as if it were patently obvious that it could only be describing the person on the left.
I am currently studying the representation of the live-in maid in Brazilian newspapers, magazines, movies and TV, looking for points of contact between the imagery and narrative of live-in maids on early twenty-first century and the imagery and narrative of slavery on the nineteenth. The parallel between maids and slaves has been constantly alluded to but, as far as I could find, no one has ever written academically about it yet. Therefore, my research has the potential to be quite innovative and to contribute to a greater understanding of the lasting legacy of slavery in contemporary Brazilian society.
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A foto foi indicação do Daniel, do Fósforo. Leiam o post original sobre esse assunto.
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