“Manufacturing Defect”: What does a 1980s advertising campaign tell us about motherhood and racism in Brazil?

Abstract

The present article aims to introduce and discuss the concepts of the raciality device, controlling images, and reproductive hierarchies, based on the case of the advertising campaign released in 1986 by the Center for Research and Assistance in Human Reproduction (CPARH) in the city of Salvador, Bahia. In doing so, it seeks to contribute to the debate on how racism operates in relation to Black, poor, and marginalized motherhoods in Brazil. Regarding methodology, the article seeks to articulate two methodological approaches: the field of studies on the sociology of racism, which considers racism not only as a premise but also as an object of research in concrete cases, analyzing how it operates; and the analytical perspective of decolonial feminism, to understand how colonialist, capitalist, racial, and sex/gender systems of oppression are interconnected and contribute to the dehumanization of Black women. In this article, we conclude that systems of oppression operate through mechanisms such as the raciality device, which imposes restrictions on Black women; controlling images, which generate stereotypes and contribute to the dehumanization of their bodies; and reproductive hierarchies, which produce subalternized motherhoods. In addition to reinforcing the subjugation of Black individuals, we also conclude that the racial contract and the narcissistic pact of whiteness grant privileges to white people and sustain mechanisms of racist oppression. The consequences of this include the systematic violation of Black women’s human rights.