"The myth of Leila Diniz was, and is, so powerful that it makes sense to say in Brazil today that 'every woman is a bit Leila Diniz.' That's why this book is important. It makes us reflect, and a lot, on the changes and continuities in sexual and marital behavior over the past few years, not only among women, but also among men." Peter Fry "Leila believed in freedom in the broadest sense: everyone had the right to live as they wished. This included not only the freedom to invite a man to bed, have seven boyfriends a week, choose the father of her child without having to marry him, and go to the beach pregnant and in a bikini—but also the freedom to marry a virgin, be a one-man woman, and do everything according to the old conventions, if that was what the girl preferred. That's what she believed, and that's what happened: today, nothing is forbidden anymore, but nothing is mandatory either. Leila allowed herself to be judged by an entire country so that no one else would judge anyone else." Ruy Castro, excerpt from the book She is Carioca – An Encyclopedia of Ipanema: Every Woman Is a Half Leila Diniz is a passionate and captivating book about a Rio de Janeiro woman who revolutionized customs in the late 1960s. And why did Leila Diniz, among so many other women who lived intensely during this historic moment, become a legend? Leila herself answers the question: "About my life, my way of life, I make no secret. I am a free woman. Freedom is a life choice." Leila did and said what many longed to do and say. With her countless swear words in the classic interview with O Pasquim, with her extremely free and pleasurable sex and love life, with her pregnant body in a bikini, she brought to light behaviors, values, and ideas that already existed but were experienced as stigmatized, forbidden, or hidden. It is no wonder she is considered a precursor of feminism in Brazil: an intuitive feminist who decisively influenced new generations. Leila Diniz, by publicly affirming her behaviors and ideas regarding sexual freedom, by rejecting traditional models of marriage and family and by challenging the logic of male domination, came to personify the radical transformations of the female (and also male) condition that occurred in Brazil.
Mirian Goldenberg nasceu em Santos, São Paulo. Desde 1978 mora no Rio de Janeiro. É antropóloga e professora do Departamento de Antropologia Cultural e do Programa de Pós-graduação em Sociologia e Antropologia do Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Sociais da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Escreveu Por que homens e mulheres traem?, A Outra, Toda mulher é meio Leila Diniz, Intimidade, A arte de pesquisar, Os novos desejos, Nu & vestido, Infiel: notas de uma antropóloga, O corpo como capital, Coroas: corpo, envelhecimento, casamento e infidelidade e Noites de insônia. A autora tem orientado dezenas de pesquisas nas áreas de gênero, corpo, envelhecimento, sexualidade e novas conjugalidades na cultura brasileira.
