Polski
Fit tourism in Rio de Janeiro is getting more and more popular every year, that is, about Brazilian beauty models, so different from European ones. Carioca is the term for a native and resident of the Cidade Maravilhosa, or Miracle City, as Rio de Janeiro is called. It is the most recognizable metropolitan area in Brazil, which is associated not only with samba, soccer, the statue of Christ the Redeemer, Copacabana beach, but also with beautiful women.
Table of Contents:
- Być piękną jak carioca
- Rio de Janeiro versus all of Brazil – my experience
- Determinants of female beauty in Rio de Janeiro that may surprise European women
- Conclusion. Is it worth being inspired by the women of Rio de Janeiro?
Be as beautiful as a carioca
Who is carioca?
At this point, more than one reader probably visualizes a breakfasting woman in a skimpy bikini with a thong strapped over her full buttocks on a beach of white, powdery like flour sand, or dancing at a carnival parade in feathers and sequins to the beat of bass drums winning the rhythm of samba. Regardless of the details, foreigners characterize Rio de Janeiro’s female residents as smiling and aware of their qualities. In Brazil, this type of woman is called a poderosa, and it’s a compliment that expresses in one word a whole range of qualities, as in one of funk music’s biggest hits Glamurosa by the late king of the genre Mc Marcinho, who died last year: “Glamurosa, rainha do funk/ Poderosa, olhar de diamante” (translation: Magnificent, queen of funk/ Mighty, shines like a diamond). Recommended.
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Mulher poderosa, or Brazilian “Super woman” terminology
Who is Mulher Poderosa(mulher, from l. Portuguese for woman)? The term means from the English “powerful,” which means Wonder Woman of the daily routine, a woman who is powerful, strong, sexy, intelligent, certainly not modest, not insubordinate to compliments, not submissive, not insecure about others or complacent. Poderosa doesn’t complain, because as you know, complaining in Brazil is considered a lack of culture. Cariocas, in particular, adhere to the principle that “problems are left at home, not burdened with telling other people about them.” Why am I referring only to Rio de Janeiro and not to Brazil as a whole? After all, beautiful Brazilian women are in every corner of this country larger than the entire European Union. Why am I not talking about the pretty descendants of Slavic immigrants in the south or the Afro-beauties in the north of the country? Well, Rio is the essence of the best that Brazil has, a picturesque location and a friendly climate where the temperature does not drop below 18℃ even on the coldest days of the year. There is no other city in Brazil that combines the best typical features of the nation into a whole. To use an easy-to-understand parallel, just as the entire United States is not like New York, Brazil as a whole is not like Rio.
Rio de Janeiro versus all of Brazil – my experience
I have had 4 stays of several months in the City of God, which add up to a year and a half. During my first visit in 2018, locals as well as friends from Poland looked at me in disbelief when I said I flew to Rio to… sign up for the world’s best women’s gym, skate on Sundays through Avenida Atlantica along Copa (that’s how Copacabana is called), get a tan and just live like the locals. Today in 2024, there are plenty of fit tourists like me. People who want to feel the lifestyle of a carioca woman, meaning a grandmother who is confident, always happy and full of energy. It may sound a little crazy, but what would life be without a little positive craziness?
The attributes attributed to an attractive woman and some of the canons of beauty in Rio de Janeiro may surprise us – Polish women and men. Let’s get to the specifics.
Brazil is a melting pot of cultures, with influences from indigenous peoples, descendants of African slaves, arriving Asians for work, and Europeans settling for various purposes over the centuries, beginning with the colonizers and ending with post-war immigration in the mid-20th century. Cultures and skin colors mix here in every possible way. Rio is a good example of this, as not only Brazilians from other parts of the country, but also foreigners are eager to settle here. The canon of beauty is universal, so that women of different beauty types can fit in.
Determinants of female beauty in Rio de Janeiro that may surprise European women
Sexy as moss on a peach peel
Despite the famous intimate area waxing procedure practiced by women all over the world, called the “Brazilian bikini,” other parts of the body cariocas intentionally leave hairy. In addition to the always impeccable depilation of their armpits, calves and intimate areas, women intentionally do not remove hair on their forearms, thighs or even on their abdomen or buttocks, but lighten them. This can be done with diluted hair bleach or hydrogen peroxide. The goal is milky white hairs that stand out on tanned skin. The effect is compared to the moss on the skin of a ripe peach and is considered attractive.
Tanning with sun signs
On Mediterranean beaches, such as in Spain and even in the Balkans, some women practice topless tanning. This is a popular practice among older German women, for example. In Rio, on the other hand, it is something unthinkable, no one tans toples, because it is the lines of pale skin reflected after tanning in a bathing suit that are the desired effect, the more contrasting – the better type. Despite the great weather in Rio, solariums, spray tanning and open-air tanning salons, where you pay to lie in the sun while the employees lubricate the client’s body with an accelerant and time when she should turn to the other side, are popular. In such establishments, experts stick women with a biquini da fita, which is a disposable bikini made of adhesive tape directly on the skin. A session in such a disposable bikini costs about $70 upwards. Marquinas de sol, or sun marks (tan lines) are a point of pride, regardless of complexion. Even women with darker skin tones tan for the contrasting patterns on their skin. Local men recognize “sun marks” as something ultra sexy.
Brazilian balayage
In South American countries, women pay much more attention to taking care of their hair than in Europe. They sometimes treat short hairstyles of cariocas as a reason for complexes. If they don’t have the patience to grow their hair natural, they often extend it. Popular are cabelo na bunda, or hair so long that the ends reach the buttocks. Probably due to the ability to beach all year round and access to water sports, the ideal hairstyle is blonde highlights in the style of a surfer, sun-kissed hair, long of course. Hairdressing services in Brazil are expensive. In a good hair salon, a balayage costs as much as 2,500 zlotys, and takes several hours to complete, which is why going blonde is considered “opulent” styling. Even in home salons in favelas (poorer communities in Rio) the price of this service is not less than the equivalent of 400 zlotys. Most women are natural brunettes, so no one is ashamed of their roots, and hair is usually dyed once a year in the summer, usually before New Year’s or Carnival. The expression of fondness for blonde hair and the perception of this hair color as a sign of wealth is, in a way, an offshoot of the “white is rich, dark-skinned is poor” class mentality, which, although an uncomfortable topic swept under the rug in such a culturally diverse country, still exists.
Younger men are also eager to dye their hair blond. For example, during the 2022 World Cup, when Neymar, the Brazilian soccer star, bleached his hair blond, there was a bleaching frenzy in Rio as crowds of teenagers followed in the idol’s footsteps.
Cavalona, or the fitness muse
In Rio, women with very slim, boyish figures in the style of Victoria Secret models are pitied, not envied. Of course, everyone loves Adriana Lima, but she hardly resembles local women. Cavalona is literally a mare, a female horse, but in a colloquial sense cavalona is used to describe a corpulent, muscular woman, The word is not an insult, but a compliment. Thin waist, muscular buttocks and thighs are the type of figure that local women love. The category of women’s bodybuilding that promotes curvy, unlined shapes, called wellness (which has also been very popular in Poland for several years) has its origins in Brazil, and is especially popular in Rio de Janeiro. Typical “wellneski” who can be easily found on Instagram are, for example. Vivi Winkler, Patricia Parada or Renata Miceli. The typical cavalona of Rio is also called a fitness diva or muse. It’s home to one of the most famous gyms in the world, the fourth largest in terms of social media reach globally, the only one that can compete with American classics of the genre, like Gold’s Gym Mecca in Los Angeles or budget chain Planet Fitness. We’re talking about DNA Experience, a gym focused on women, where the number of fitness influencers, models, dancers, actresses, celebrities and businesswomen with poster-like bodies and profiles with often million-dollar reaches, per square meter breaks all records. If you’re in Rio de Janeiro and want to visit the place where extremely popular, unique trainer Carol Vaz (more than 7 million followers on TikTok and Instagram) instructs Brazilian beauties, it’s only there. You can buy a daily pass or a monthly pass and train with the best, no one is discriminated against there. Aside from the regulars of the DNA Experience, the most beautiful women in Rio are the queens and muses of the samba schools, competing during Carnival. Rainha de bateria, or samba (drum) queen, representing the school that wins, even becomes not just a carnival queen, but a veritable queen of life. The bodies of such women, the carnival dancers are an indicator of the beauty of cariocas. We can mention well-known sambistas and regulars of the DNA Experience, such as Monique Rizzeto – queen of the Unidos da Barra da Tijuca samba school, Viviane Araujo of the Salgueiros school (actress and absolute queen for 15 carnivals already) or Juliana Souza – queen of the Uniao da Ilha do Governador school.
In Brazil, miss beauty contests are nowhere near as important an event as, for example, in Venezuela, where the country’s miss elections are as important as political elections. In Rio, the most beautiful are not the women competing in beauty contests, but the queens of Carnival. Such status comes with immense popularity. Eager tourists dreaming of walking among the dancers at the famous Sambodrome should arrive in Rio no later than October or early November, when regular choreography rehearsals begin.
Siliconade, or the magic of fillers
Siloconada, meaning “powered up.” It’s not that every woman in Rio uses aesthetic medicine, but it’s not condemned or hidden. The largest number of aesthetic medicine procedures in the world are performed not in the US, but in Brazil. Interestingly, it is possible to do some of them, such as, among others, breast augmentation, under the state health care system. There are more than 20 public hospitals in Rio that offer such services. In Poland, breast or buttock implants “on the National Health Service” sound funny and unrealistic.
Competent does not mean modestly dressed and formal
In Europe, a woman’s professional position, such as that of a lawyer or doctor, requires modest attire appropriate to the seriousness of the position. In Rio, such a line of thinking does not hold true. No one detracts from the qualifications of female lawyers, even judges or doctors in the specialty of surgery, if they show up in public after work in a mini-dress or a top that has been cut out, exposing their bodies. As an example, there is the well-known conservative politician Marinara Costa, a close associate of former President Jair Bolsonaro, a woman shown four times on the cover of Playboy in the 1990s, who is respected and not belittled when she comes to the gym in a skin-tight pantsuit. In Poland, there might be comments that “it’s not appropriate”, but cariocas see it differently, admiring the results of a healthy lifestyle and self-discipline. In Rio de Janeiro, it’s okay for a woman to live how she wants and look how she wants.
Fat shaming – absolutely not
In Rio, it’s not customary to disavow age, transgender or carcass discrimination. All you have to do is find on social networks superstar Jojo Todynho, a singer from and living in the City of God, now one of the country ‘s top celebrities (30 million followers on Instagram). Brazilians love confidence.
Women vs. soccer in Rio
A woman in Rio, is not simply beautiful, but is a veritable goddess when… she knows soccer and loves to go to games. It is interesting to note that just as, for example, in Miami, New York or London pretty women are invited in nightclubs and discos to the VIP boxes, because by their mere presence they increase the prestige of the clubs, so in Rio, at the famous Maracana stadium to the VIP boxes (so-called camarotes) promoters invite attractive girls to simply watch the game, cheer, put a few photos on social networks, because this increases the marketing value of the assigned company’s balcony in the stands. Attending matches in Rio is the equivalent of frequenting selective, overpriced clubs in Warsaw.
Education a source of pride
Residents of the “Miracle City,” as Rio de Janeiro is called, proudly talk about education. This is in positive contrast to many female influencers, sometimes glorified in Europe, where the topic of education remains in the shadows of popularity in show business circles and gossip sites. Education is as much an attribute for adding attractiveness in social circles in Rio as an interest in soccer. People coming from a place with such significant stratification, where 4.2% of the population over the age of 15 is illiterate[1], fully understand that education is the gateway to a better future. Universities and colleges are mostly state-run and free. An impressive education increases attractiveness, so women proudly boast when they are studying or have graduated. Appearance is not everything.
Carioca doesn’t need branded gadgets
Probably due to frequent petty theft, in Rio women do not pay much attention to branded handbags, shoes or other gadgets. Of course, it is prestigious to be the owner of an item from Louis Vuitton, Gucci or Versace, but first of all, products from Italian, French or American designers are very hard to find there and more expensive than in Europe, and besides, they tempt the eye of a thief. Also, because of the heat, it is more difficult for women to play with fashion as we do in Europe.
Conclusion. Is it worth being inspired by the women of Rio de Janeiro?
Following the words of TV presenter, journalist and travel vlogger Malini Angelica, “a carioca can bea carioca no matter where you are or what country you come from”[2]. It’s a way of life and a state of mind. Rio residents are poderosas, joyful, strong, accepting the attention and admiration of others without a dose of complexes, without losing their femininity. Where do they get the energy to do this? Hmm… maybe it’s the sun shining all year round? Rio de Janeiro is a unique city, which is understood by visitors from all corners of the globe, looking for new local experiences that don’t interfere with the increasingly popular trend of betting on a healthy lifestyle, which is why fit-tourism is more and more popular here every year. Is it worth it? It certainly is.
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About the author: Ewa Treszczotko (born 1988) – graduate of international relations at the University of Lodz (2010), Master of Cultural Studies of Latin America at the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Warsaw (2012), graduate of the American Fitness and Nutrition Academy (Pasadena, CA 2018) and certified personal trainer by the American College of Sport Medicine (2018). A former employee of the Polish Embassy in Lima (2022), she is currently an expert on the Business development in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking markets. Author of travel articles (“National Geographic Polska”, “Poznaj Świat”, “All Inclusive Magazine”, “Travel Polska”, wp.pl). Independent traveler, has visited 74 countries (data as of August 2024). She has participated in numerous international volunteers, including. She helped Venezuelan refugees from Colombia, worked with the Ketchua people in Ecuador and the Mennonite community in Paraguay. She loves Brazil and says that “all roads lead to Rio.” She is one of the heroines of the Polsat channel’s program “Poles in the World” (episode filmed in Rio de Janeiro).
1 https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2022/1 1/21/taxa-de-analfabetismo-no-rj-entre-pessoas-a-partir-de-15-anos-e-a-maior-da-regiao-sudeste
2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aCbebFag58
3 Marina Costa: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8NbpWZOR5b/?hl=es
4 Monique Rizetto https://www.instagram.com/p/C6gmVbsLW3A/?hl=pl
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