Education, sexuality and religion: (dis) colonizing female bodies

Abstract

When we talk about the female body, we are dealing with secular discussions on gender relations that have been demarcating spaces of struggle and empowerment of women today. Their spaces of transition and occupation, as well as the daily relationships that interfere with their subjectivities, have been an increasingly broad field of study in academia. In Brazil, the diversity of bodies can be represented based on racial, religious and/or ethnic belonging. It is in this sense that the present article aims to understand the beliefs/conceptions of Protestant faithful regarding the interference of religion in sexual education and colonization of female bodies. Anchored on field research with a qualitative approach, carried out with a group of women and leaders of the Assembly of God church, the study revealed that female bodies are not only conditioned to denominational guidelines, but are also colonized ethically and aesthetically by Western standards.