“The World Cup is God’s gift to women,” Brazilian 22-year-old Renata de Mouro Moitinho told the AP while resting from a dance with an Italian man in Rio. “There are so many men everywhere these days, it’s amazing.”
Stories about Brazilian women celebrating the “man bonanza” of the World Cup have abounded on the Internet, but so have articles featuring complaints that male visitors are treating Brazilian women with disrespect. The stereotype that Brazilian women are overtly sexual, which some observers claim male football fans have been exploiting during their World Cup trips, clashes with the host country’s identity as the largest Catholic country in the world.
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