Brazil: Coletivo Feminista Sexualidade e Saúde

Publication

Nossos Corpos por Nós Mesmas
(Volume 1 published in July 2021; the entire book was published in December 2022)

Translation: Our Bodies for Ourselves

Language

Portuguese

Our Bodies, Ourselves Project

In 2019, several organizations in Brazil came together to translate and adapt “Our Bodies, Ourselves” into Portuguese. The group, which included members of the Coletivo Feminista Sexualidade e Saúde (CFSS), participants in the Research Group on Translation Studies at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and students and members of the translation team at Universidade de Campinas (Unicamp), translated the English edition and adapted it to meet the needs of women in Brazil.

In the beginning, the group planned to publish the entire book in three volumes. The first volume, which covers anatomy and sexuality, body image, birth control, safer sex, abortion, violence against women, and environmental and occupational health, was published in July 2021. After the first volume was published, the group decided to publish a single book rather than three individual volumes. The entire book was published in December 2022.

Content Available Online

The prefaces for the new book are now available online. Because many people from different places worked on the project, the book has four unique prefaces, so that each group could share their experiences and perceptions. Read the prefaces in both Portuguese and English.

The group has also translated a book of prefaces from global adaptations of Our Bodies, Ourselves. Read Our Bodies, Ourselves Transformado Mundialmente: Uma Coleção de Prefácios com traduçoes culturalmente adaptadas de ‘Our Bodies, Ourselves.’ You can also read a blog post, written in Spanish by 2019 Unicamp visiting professor Jose Yuste-Frías, about the booklet translation.

The full book will be available on the website of Coletivo Feminista Sexualidade e Saúde: www.mulheres.org.br

How to Obtain Print Copies

The book can be pre-ordered here.

Community Action & Activism

The group collaborated to create accessible, evidence-based information on women’s health and sexuality, especially for those in neglected and stigmatized communities. They hope their work will encourage and promote discussion among those with different areas of knowledge, including students, physicians, researchers, midwives, and psychologists.

This is a particularly important issue in Brazil, which, despite good and free public assistance for family planning and contraceptives, has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in place (both doctors/medical staff and women can face jail time for abortion) and huge amount of obstetrician violence, in the form of mandatory cesarean sections and gynecological abuse.

Translation Teams

Members of the translation team at Universidade de Campinas (Unicamp)

Participants in the Research Group on Translation Studies at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)

members of Coletivo Feminista who are working on a Portuguese adaptation of "Our Bodies, Ourselves" — Coletivo Feminista members working on the Portuguese adaptation of “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” from L to R: Bia Fioretti, Raquel Pereira, and Luiza Cadioli

In September 2021, the Coletivo Feminista Sexualidade e Saúde and Our Bodies Ourselves held a webinar to celebrate the publication of “Nossos Corpos por Nós Mesmas” and to honor the generations of Brazilian and U.S. feminists who have long fought for health justice and equality.

The event was powerful and moving, as one woman after another shared their stories on how “Our Bodies, Ourselves” and “Nossos Corpos” have affected their lives, how and why they became involved in the movement for reproductive justice, and what it has meant (and means) to work and learn from feminists in different countries.

In preparation for the event, several of the organizers created a wonderful, celebratory 17-minute video of stories and greetings from the Brazilian team:

You can also watch a recording of the full one-and-a-half-hour webinar. The recording is partly in Portuguese and partly in English, with subtitles for the other language. (To see the subtitles, click “cc” at the bottom of the video.)

For More Information/ Para mais informações

Contact

Website: www.mulheres.org.br
Instagram: @coletivo_feminista
Email: mulheresorg@gmail.com
Phone: +55 11 3812-8681
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ColetivoFeminista/