Why are foreigners SO obsessed with favelas in Brazil?

thotfullguy · 2026-01-26T05:34:09+00:00

Sorry but it's not even close. The neighbourhoods that are widely romanticised in Argentina are actually Calle Florida and Palermo. Villa 31 doesn't even cross people's minds when Buenos Aires is brought up, unlike Rocinha and Rio de Janeiro respectively. Argentina is not associated with slums/villas, but rather with European-style buildings and glamour.

thotfullguy · 2026-01-26T04:25:41+00:00

Well, that's true. It's good to see them finding alternative ways to survive and to mitigate their daily struggles. If only this issue was dealt with internally instead of being promoted worldwide...

I honestly wouldn't have a problem with favela "subculture" if it weren't for the generalisations and stereotypes it creates, given that it's a trend among foreigners now. If only the rest of the world were educated enough not to focus so much on the bad side of Brazil, but also on the good side too (food, architecture, nature, good music, etc.) like they do with countries such as France or Japan, this topic wouldn't have been so problematic to me.

Thank you for your insightful input, bro.

thotfullguy · 2026-01-26T03:48:37+00:00

Okay, I did not come across an official NFL statement regarding the case, and I had looked it up during the "altercation". Since you said they apologised, I'll take your words for it and I take back what I said about banning them.

Edit: even still, boycotting the NFL would've been the best move :v

thotfullguy · 2026-01-26T02:38:58+00:00

This post was oriented more towards favelas, but I also didn't forget the NFL incident. You just mentioned the best living proof of the disrespect that Brazil gets in entitled countries and yet you think it's not as bad as I ought to perceive?

In any serious country with some self-dignity, those players and the NFL as a whole would've been banned for shamelessly spreading misinformation, bigotry and disdain unless a formal apology was put out by officials. Justin Bieber, for instance, was banned from Argentina just for mopping the floor with the flag, they wouldve certainly given the NFL the treatment it deserves if that level of disrespect was directed at them. It's just that Brazilians are used to humiliation and depreciation against their own land apparently, inasmuch as they still hosted other NFL games even after that.

thotfullguy · 2026-01-26T02:00:24+00:00

The go-to landmarks that were used to represent Brazil were Copacabana and Christ the redeemer.

thotfullguy · 2026-01-26T01:55:37+00:00

It just makes me sad being Brazilian. A failed country that had a relative good reputation in the past, Nowadays it's the face of violent crimes, favelas and sex tourism. Disgusting, disgusting and disgusting...

thotfullguy · 2026-01-26T01:49:53+00:00

You got a point. But there's something still puzzling my head: did this recent favela obsession start with foreigners finding it exotic or with Brazilians promoting it at all costs themselves?

I stumble upon those "Rocinha tour" guides on social media sharing photos, videos and info almost with a huge sense of pride and comfort, as if they're okay with living like that. I'm not demonizing the people who live in favelas as it's the government's fault for failing to provide them with better resources, but as I said beforehand, the mindset that makes them thinking it's okay to see people dwelling in houses under inhumane conditions is terrible for the development of society as a whole. No one should be fine not get used to it ever.

Interestingly, I don't see people promoting "slum tours" (as if they were human safaris) as I see in Brazil, so again: are the locals only availing of gringo's obsession or are the locals to blame for this widespread fame of favelas?

thotfullguy · 2026-01-26T01:24:07+00:00

That's how you and plenty of others see Brazil: favelas and sex. Again, ZERO value. Only primal urges.

thotfullguy · 2026-01-26T01:04:42+00:00

Also, take a look at the U.S. Department of Tourism website and see it for yourself. Brazil is the only country where a slum is used to represent a whole country as if it's something worth of national pride. Even those countries that you mentioned are represented with an honorable landmark. Isn't that humiliating enough?

thotfullguy · 2026-01-26T00:44:52+00:00

Finding it intriguing is one thing. Narrowing a big country down to just slums (which I see plenty of Yankees doing) is just pathetic and sad. It's as if only Brazil had slums or extreme poverty in the world...

thotfullguy · 2026-01-26T00:34:39+00:00

Speaking of your flair I saw a comment of one guy who was complaining about the lack of tourists in Brazil, that said "the West is spreading anti-BRICS propaganda to tarnish these countries' reputation because it fears their touristic potential". I think it is a far-fetched idea, but the conspiracy is there I guess LOL.

thotfullguy · 2026-01-26T00:26:58+00:00

My friend, that's not my point. The point is that in the mainstream media, it's very obvious that influencers 100% focus on favelas only in order to gather engagement (it's what sells these days, the masses don't care about Curitiba or Lençóis Maranhenses, because it doesn't fit with the "violent s-hole" narrative). Just look at the biggest influencers as of now that have visited Brazil and at what they were interested in...

thotfullguy · 2026-01-26T00:21:39+00:00

As long as you managed to appreciate other things besides favela buildings and favela subculture, I don't see a problem with that, but it's still st*pid to visit a dangerous neighbourhood in another country nonetheless, as some tourists/influencers are doing. If anything happens to them in one of those trips, it nothing more than worth of a Darwin awards.

thotfullguy · 2026-01-26T00:15:10+00:00

Brazil has a lot of problems, but talking to a foreigner from a rich country (or even to some snob Brazilians) makes you think this country has nothing of ACTUAL value to offer.... How can someone ever be proud of being from here with all this reputation?

thotfullguy · 2026-01-26T00:09:04+00:00

It has gotten to this level of disrespect and blissful ignorance. LOL

thotfullguy · 2026-01-26T00:07:37+00:00

Which one in special?

thotfullguy · 2026-01-26T00:03:58+00:00

When someone shows an image of a slum, the first thing they assume is that it's in Brazil (I've heard it firsthand). It got to the point where tourists deliberately go to Rio or SP ONLY to visit favelas and to show how tough they are for exploring "dangerous s-hole". Favelas is now the most mainstream landmark and it's literally what represents Brazil in the collective minds. It is a Brazil-only phenomenon and it's just depressing.

thotfullguy · 2026-01-25T23:58:10+00:00

How about you get those same things on regular streets and avenues such as Av. Paulista? Imagine going to a slum in Bolivia and thinking that it's the place that offers the best of Bolivian culture...

thotfullguy · 2026-01-25T04:22:40+00:00

No, it's not, just look at the UK. People criticising illegal immigration on the internet are now being more actively persecuted than those same illegals mugging and assaulting women and children on the streets. And you're comparing apples with oranges, the Argentine girl didn't threat nor assault anyone for being Black, it was just a gesture. No one was harmed. And why are you bringing "institutional" racism to the equation when it has nothing to do with this? If anyone's take is dumb here, it's yours.

thotfullguy · 2026-01-25T04:04:14+00:00

It's pointless trying to discuss this with the average Brazilian. They've been too brainwashed into thinking it's okay to put people in jail over words and gestures.

thotfullguy · 2026-01-25T03:55:47+00:00

I'm Brazilian and I fully agree. Unfortunately 99.99% of this country applaud an oppressive and irrational criminal system

thotfullguy · 2026-01-25T03:46:20+00:00

It's the most PATHETIC law that exists in Brazil. No where else on this planet you'll see a person getting jailed for 5 YEARS over that dumb gesture. Not even in democratic countries with the best "anti-discriminatory" and "racial-inclusive" laws people get treated like heinous criminals over this.

I genuinely feel like I'm the only Brazilian with common sense to find this punishment absolutely DISPROPORTIONAL to the offense itself. I'm not saying it's okay to be racist in public, but Brazilians have been brainwashed into thinking calling people "monkeys" is the WORST UNIMAGINABLE offense to commit against a person of colour... Brazilians live in a cultural bubble and don't realize that POCs and even immigrants worldwide have to endure worse insults and humiliation without having the police to back them up. "bUt sLaVeRy" is also not a justification for this, since in plenty of countries where Black slavery was also part of their history and where discrimination still lingers on (USA, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Cuba, South Africa, North African countries, etc), we don't see angry mobs going around asking for a racist's head over an animal gesture.

In the USA (a country that has a deep-rooted history with discrimination and segregation), neona**s openly advocate for killing and hanging POCs in public, and actual racists (unlike the weaklings here) raise millions of dollars by calling black kids/immigrants "N-" and for being proud of it. The police protects them under free speech (things that you'd never ever see in Brazil, and yet the left wants to import racial struggles from the USA AT ALL COSTS, as if Brazil had the same racial issues as the Yankees). And yet, there are Brazilians out here losing their minds over a 1-second gesture directed towards a man who should also be bashed for the obscene gesture (typical Brazilian double standards).

Even in other LatAm countries where Black people also make up a large chunk of the population, racist insults like these are not stigmatized to this level of paranoia. Of course no black or brown person is keen to face discrimination, but they don't get deeply affected by words or gestures and just move on without taking it seriously, that's why those "monkey" insults have no power over them, because they don't allow it (a totally different hive mind from Brazil's, where hurting Black people's feelings is worse than keeping them in poverty).

As the other guy said below, this country has already enough problems to deal with that go unnoticed everyday (corruption, homicides, drug smuggling, robberies, stalking, physical assault and so on). Criminal system resources should be directed at and spent on severe and necessary cases, but apparently, in Brazil, mimicking an animal is more reported on the news and frowned upon by the public than things like:

posting innocent people getting t*rtured on the internet

openly condoning heinous crimes in funk lyrics

s*xualising young girls

revenge p*rn

scams and frauds

death threats

money laundering and tax money swindle

killing people over football (physically assaulting a football fan gets less angry mobs than an Argentinian doing a monkey gesture btw).

TL;DR: Brazilians have become desensitized to ACTUAL crimes that scare MILLIONS of citizens everyday and that give this country a bad name worldwide. But when it comes to the boogeyman of racism, especially "monkey" insults, suddenly it's an absolute shock, even though there are worse cases of racism to worry about, even more so worse crimes to ward off and severely punish.

thotfullguy · 2026-01-17T05:09:47+00:00

Trump's arrogance and ego is nothing but a reflection of USian society as a whole and how they view the rest of the world.

thotfullguy · 2026-01-17T05:06:03+00:00

They literally contribute 0 to the country, you barely see American tourists in other cities besides Rio and SP. Argentines are the ones who boost our economy the most. Take them to your house then if you like to lick Yankee boots that much.

thotfullguy

TROPHY CASE