Her mom added, "She is really skinny and only ever wears pants. Mayara is timid and ashamed of her body. This was the first time in her life that she wore a dress, and it was borrowed from a friend in the shantytown because she doesn't own one."
The high school sophomore, who hails from one of Rio de Janeiro's slums known as favelas, had been picked by UNICEF to join the counterpart Junior 8 forum of teenagers because she stood out as a community volunteer. She shares a single room with her parents and two younger brothers and can't afford the bus fare to attend a good high school.
"Why are they looking at her like that? This is a girl who is articulate and intelligent and just wants to do the right thing," the father said. "Instead, they are forcing her into a negative light."
July 12, 2009
"She is dedicated to helping the poor, not to seducing world leaders. This is the wrong image of my daughter."
So said Eduardo Tavares, father of Mayara Rodrigues Tavares, the 17-year-old woman famously apparently ogled by Presidents Obama and Sarkozy.
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The path to helping the poor sometimes takes unusual turns.
Whatever happened to Vera Baker?
Vera Baker
now, don't we all feel like scum?
Um...isn't she complaining about Drudge not Obama?
After all, it's his 2 day whirling light that caused all of this.
Since when is it okay to post sexual pictures of minors on the internets?
Actually I change my mind, it's all the right wingers who dug through the trash and did everything thing in their puritanical power to find out who this person was and then rigorously thust her name out there over and over along with her age.
Target acquisition for the powerful man is preferably a weak female, such as a teen girl, from a poorer background. The more "hope and change" we hear about, the more every thing stays the same as humans have always done them. The anger at Palin arises from for her breaking this expected pretty woman pattern for real, and thus exposing the big talkers about women's power equality.
My dear boy. She knows Sarah Palin.
That makes it permissible
Uh, last time I checked Drudge didn't have any control over international photogs, the wire services or over the European press that first wagged their tongues at this story. Just because some Americans check Drudge regularly does not mean that he propelled this international story.
Nice try though.
All the fault of Drudge and those damned right-wingers, eh? I might have known.
It's a nice dress and she's a lovely girl.
I didn't notice anyone particularly making a big deal about *her* as if she did anything at all wrong or out of line.
Man, that shanty town coture is better than I thought it would be.
Trey
Synova wrote: "I didn't notice anyone particularly making a big deal about *her* as if she did anything at all wrong or out of line."
That is just the way the left treat women. Recall all the kind things said about Jennifer Flowers et al?
Trey
Nothing a teenage girl could want more than to have her dad say, in a statement published across the world, "Mayara is timid and ashamed of her body."
I hope he ran that by her first. The self-conscious-ometer just hit the roof.
Woops, Mom said that. Same difference.
Gee, I'm poor...can she empower me?
I suppose Obama is to be credited for his discretion, as contrasted with Sarkosi's overt ogling. But, here's what the entire sentient world saw that apparently some fervent supporters (down there VVV) insist on missing. Heh heh heh, I said "supporters."
"That is just the way the left treat women."
I donno... maybe.
But in any case it seems that a variety of commentators *here* are ready to assume that the event reflected on her somehow. I can see how she'd be mortified (I have teen aged daughters) by the attention and I can see how her parents would be upset (I have teen aged daughters) by the photograph, but I would hope that what seems utterly clear to me is equally clear to anyone else... she wasn't flaunting anything but her youth and that's not her *fault*.
I didn't even notice anyone at Ace of Spades being raunchy about her, and they're raunchy about *everyone*. Sort of the blog equivalent of Spike TV. Other than finding a photo of her from the front and commenting that she was attractive from the front *too*, it was pretty subdued. About *her*.
Obama's posture on the other hand was described as "b*oner leg". (I swear I go over there because I learn something new every day.)
And really... how many people (fun as it all was) didn't really figure that the photograph was just as likely a trick of perspective as actually catching either of them oogling her? Sort of a "could be" either way?
Still, the assumption that anything about it all reflects on her or that anyone should be particularly ashamed of supposedly focusing on her is a bit odd to me.
They are looking at her like that because she has a great ass. Get used to it, Mom.
I don't think it has much to do with how the left treats women. I am not a lefty and I enjoy a good look at a nice female form.
In fact, the left treats women really great. Just like the left treats African-Americans. Just as long as they don't get any funny ideas.
"Nothing a teenage girl could want more than to have her dad say, in a statement published across the world, "Mayara is timid and ashamed of her body.""
Translation issues from the Portugese? A less than perfect understanding of English by the father? Someone screwed up and translated "humilde" as "humilhado?"
In fact... "shy" is "tÃmido" according to babelfish...
Saying that his daughter is shy and humble makes more sense.
Maybe it was translated by someone who took the obvious cognate of "timid" and goofed entirely on "humilde".
It was her mother, not her dad who said that.
Helping the poor is the line her parents bought.
"And dad found some solace in the episode. "Thank God that [Italian playboy Prime Minister Silvio] Berlusconi was nowhere near her," he said."
LOL!
I think that Dad is hiding a sense of humor.
I've never used this line in a context like this before but:
"See, poverty IS an aphrodisiac!"
BTW, you don't want to know the contexts I have used that line in,...
Just call it The Macho Response and keeeeep movin',..
I don't really know what the big deal is. This incident has not reflected poorly on their daughter at all. I've not read or heard anything that even suggested she was dressed, well, suggestively.
http://www.j8summit.com/young-people-open-junior-8-summit
A video about the event she was a delegate to.
She appears (very briefly) about 14 seconds in to it.
This picture is presented as a cute human commentary on sexuality and young females, so it is popular everywhere. The notion that Obama is caught being being immoral is rediculous. Obama is instead being photographed as a part of the Global Governance group. That is the image being sent everywhere under the ruse of being a cute sex attraction story. Get used to it. Those type of pictures will appear daily now. Have you noticed that the whole 15 year Long March to World Climate Controls over a Warming Crisis Hoax has now been admitted by Algore to have been a ploy to begin Global Governance.
I wondered about this. All of the comments about Obama looking at the girl's "ass" - they supposedly are about him, but she's a real person, not a cardboard cutout stuck up there to make a point about his looking, or not looking, or whatever. Did it ever used to be that people refrained from making sexual comments about teenage girls who did not in any way ask for them? Using vulgar terms about her anatomy, which she has decently covered? Not to mention critiquing her general attractiveness, like she has to be sexually appealing, both face and body, to justify continuing to use oxygen and take up space?
Oh, and all the "get used to it" stuff. I suppose that if a girl doesn't want vulgar comments made about her body she should either wear a burkha so you can't make out any features at all, or just "get used to" the comments. Dang.
Why didn't the parents have the sense to stay mum rather than re-ignite the story with their protestations?
The attention paid to Miss Tavares' hindquarters by the heads of state of the United States and France doesn't reflect on her, but this has nothing to do with whether these dickheads have embarassed her terribly. (Is the idea 'She shouldn't be embarassed, so no harm is done'?)
She's seventeen. Having the world contemplate the excellence of her ass would make her want to die.
They should split the cost of busing her to Yale.
As funny an image as the still shot conveyed, it was really involving a faceless and unknown female.
But yeah, the real person is rightfully a bit horrified at how its played out. I say that as a father of three teenaged girls. I hope she can use this to some advantage.
Laura...A girl does not have to put up with men's demeaning comments about their sexuality. All the men know that since their mothers have told them so. I suggest the women all speak up and threaten to leave any situation until it stops. Then the men will just have to stop, or do it behind your backs. We call that respecting women who demand respect. But apres Tatooing and piercing it is too late.
Why didn't the parents have the sense to stay mum rather than re-ignite the story with their protestations?
This girl has to go to school and continue live where she lives.
To them the president of the US might mean a little more than he does to us.
He had to speak up.
Men's low standards are there to give women, who are mostly not great deals, a chance at a mate.
Watch what you complain about.
This girl may get unjustly scorned for not "representing" Brazil in a good light.
This may into a nightmare for this young woman.
Has Letterman made a joke about her getting knocked up yet?
This is a girl who is articulate and intelligent and just wants to do the right thing," the father said.
Dad apparently does not realize that using the term "articulate" with reference to a black person is distinctly non-p.c. Unless maybe a Brazilian pardo like Mayara is different.
Peter
Ann,
I'm disappointed in your list of commentators (and you too).
You all should check out some of the videos of the "ogling" that is out there, then perhaps re-read your comments.
Poor PaPa he'd better be nice to Obama before the lefties start calling his daughter a "slut" who deserved to Ogled.
Commenters here seem not to know Brazilian women. The age of consent there is 14 and, before about age 6, every Brazilian girl has learned the value of her fine ass and how to show it off.
In fact the ass to the Brazilian is what the boob is to the gringa, plastic augmentation surgery and all.
Commenters here seem not to know Brazilian women. The age of consent there is 14 and, before about age 6, every Brazilian girl has learned the value of her fine ass and how to show it off.
In fact the ass to the Brazilian is what the boob is to the gringa, plastic augmentation surgery and all.
Jimbino, you seem not to understand women, Brazilian or not. I would be horrified if my breasts were to be the subject of international scrutiny (or praise) after some head of state checked them out.
I'm also failing to understand what the age of consent has to do with anything. Even if we were to assume that every young lady gets legal and gets laid (ridiculous enough assumption in of itself), giving one's body to a husband or boyfriend is radically different than having one's body be analysed by people whom one has never met.
Again, I'm about a dozen years older than the young Brazilian woman, but I would be horrified (and distressed) by international critique of my body. It's just a horrible thing to do to a woman.
Without men's interest, your body is nothing. So it's a contradictory wish.
The female body is all kneecaps and elbows otherwise.
"Without men's interest, your body is nothing. "
rhhardin, are you trying for troll status today?
Theobromophile,
Your objection reveals more about your body, or your discomfort with it, that the propriety of appreciating a nicely turned ass.
The age of consent has a lot to do with it, since the OP quoted the father in objecting to the worldwide publishing of the photo of wholesome appreciation of his 17-year-old daughter's ass.
Just as in Amerika, the influence of a Brazilian father's opinions on the behavior of his teen daughter is below zero and falling.
traditionalguy -
"Have you noticed that the whole 15 year Long March to World Climate Controls over a Warming Crisis Hoax has now been admitted by Algore to have been a ploy to begin Global Governance."
I actually laughed when I read that after the discussion we had here the other day about global warming when our good Leftist friends were scoffing at the ridiculous idea that AGW was a front for advancing an explicitly Leftist agenda. It's OT here, but perhaps our hostess will post the story and we can explore P.T. Barnum's adage about one being born every minute and its relationship to those who have bought into the lies.
It's one more case of feminism ruining understanding.
"They should split the cost of busing her to Yale."
And La Sorbonne for her junior year abroad.
Professor Higgins will moonlight as our new Eliza Doolittle's agent.
"Blogger jimbino said...
Theobromophile,
Your objection reveals more about your body, or your discomfort with it, that the propriety of appreciating a nicely turned ass."
No, it doesn't.
On the UNICEF video she reminds me of the Candy Store Girl from the movie The Warriors (1979).
Appropriately enough.
Candy Store Girl: Hey, what about the money you owe?
Luther: [shouts] FOR WHAT?
[Throws the (half-eaten) stolen candy bar at the girl behind the counter]
Your objection reveals more about your body, or your discomfort with it, that the propriety of appreciating a nicely turned ass.
Um... given that I'm not uncomfortable with my body, no, it doesn't.
Note to jimbino: a woman can be entirely comfortable with her own body, delight in the idea of sharing that body with a man whom she loves, but dislike the idea of said body being the subject of international commentary.
The age of consent is ridiculously irrelevant. First of all, the young lady did not consent, in any way, to having her rear end be the subject of international scrutiny. Furthermore, something can be legal but still cruel - this being a prime example.
Thankfully, most of the world does not think as you do; they understand that young women's bodies are not there for men's amusement.
"The path to helping the poor sometimes takes unusual turns."
Too true. And when we can't put a face on poverty, well then we will use some other body part that works its magic just as well.
No, it doesn't
Monty Python The Argument.
Oh Papa, it's just a little droit de seigneur!
I wonder what they call it now...maybe I should ask John Edwards.
Thankfully, most of the world does not think as you do; they understand that young women's bodies are not there for men's amusement.
Men's interest is there to get her a mate. The rest of the world sort of depends on it.
rhhardin: jimbino posted a ridiculous opinion as it if were a fact. Laura(southernxyl)'s reply was just as coherent and substantive as was the initial comment. Failing to see the problem here.
Then again, you're the one who thinks that our bodies are there to be leered at. (Again, there's a tremendous and vital difference between having one's husband or lover appreciate one's body and having strangers treat one's body as the source of amusement.)
Thing is, men only think that way because most women either don't have good dick-dar or don't comment upon it. If your equipment were the frequent subject of conversation amongst ladies, with negative comments about diameter or straightness, you would be singing a different tune.
Rh isn't going to debate if the chicken or the egg came first. He is certain it was the damn rooster. ;)
Men's interest is there to get her a mate. The rest of the world sort of depends on it.
Random leering is fundamentally different from the appreciation of someone who intends on courting the woman. Obviously, most everyone who sees this photograph will never meet the young Brazilian woman, so how can you credibly say that their appreciation is there to get her a mate?
Don't you realise that this is the sort of thing that causes women to wear modified potato sacks? Dude, if you and your ilk would STFU about our bodies being there for your amusement, you would probably see more girls in tank tops, bikinis, and short shorts. Not only are you wrong, but you're stupid and shooting your own dumb self in the foot.
RodW - "She's seventeen. Having the world contemplate the excellence of her ass would make her want to die.
They should split the cost of busing her to Yale"
Yep. It is far better to know the world is complementing the excellemce of Brazilian ass than have a picture of Obama sticking a finger down his throat in a mock gagging and Sarkozy wincing.
=================
, but she's a real person, not a cardboard cutout stuck up there to make a point about his looking, or not looking, or whatever. Did it ever used to be that people refrained from making sexual comments about teenage girls who did not in any way ask for them?
Not in any group of guys I ever hung with.
In fact, the most fun discussion of last summer was with a friend at a big get-together with several guys ragging on him about whether or not a discussion of his centerfold-looking 17 year old daughter showing up in a thomg and a gauze wraparound was in-bounds or out-of-bounds. He was dying...as we discussed the propriety of talking about jailbait butt. He left with the family. She showed up later wearing jeans..
=================
theobromophile - " In fact the ass to the Brazilian is what the boob is to the gringa, plastic augmentation surgery and all.
Jimbino, you seem not to understand women, Brazilian or not."
I think Jimbino understands Brazilian men.
As a man gains experience, he learns that women can be big trouble.
At that point random ass appreciation takes the form of shared irony.
"conflicting edit screwup," try again
Then again, you're the one who thinks that our bodies are there to be leered at.
It's not a matter of thinking it. The neurons are wired up and firing to say that.
Women are supposed to have the intuition to see they get something for that.
Stay away from feminist hen parties.
"At that point random ass appreciation takes the form of shared irony."
I am in your space and sharing your irony, rh.
LOVE your picture of you and your pup, going, instead of coming.
*laughs heartily*
Cedarford, wearing a thong and a gauze wraparound is asking for comment. Duh. Note that your friend was "dying" anyway - would you ever, in a million years, ask yourself why that was?
"Women are supposed to have the intuition to see they get something for that." - "that" being "being leered at and having your body verbally dissected by a bunch of men you don't know and please God never will". What in the blue blazing hell do you imagine that we "get" for that? A woman doesn't get babies from being leered at. So what could we get possibly? No, it's what YOU get - you get some kind of gratification, and we're supposed to appreciate you being gratified. Uh huh.
What in the blue blazing hell do you imagine that we "get" for that? A woman doesn't get babies from being leered at. So what could we get possibly? No, it's what YOU get - you get some kind of gratification, and we're supposed to appreciate you being gratified. Uh huh.
ROFL. So true.
Funny thing is, rhhardin said that I'm spending time at feminist hen parties, when, in fact, I made the hard-core conservative argument: sex is special and reserved for one man only. Christian men don't find it proper to leer at other women; Jesus didn't have very nice things to say about men who commit adultery in their hearts. Nice Christian men think that sex is God's gift to married couples; women's bodies aren't there to ogled randomly. The young woman will likely be married some day, and Obama should not be leering at some other man's future wife's butt.
But, somehow, that is "feminist hen party" material. Crikey!
Perhaps if we all agreed to wear dark glasses, except in church, we could avoid a law against ogling?
The noteworthy aspect of the picture was the lack of halo around Obama's head.
He was caught this instance in a quick glance. I'm quite certain that such pictures exist in the vast number taken since he started running. The ones published have portrayed him in a positive light.
But we haven't seen it till now. I wondered if this wasn't a subtle message about what journalists know of his personality and habits, without revealing details. A week or so ago Sanford was caught in some entanglement. Maybe the press is breaking free from it's smothering of inconvenient details about Obama. We just saw the first inkling.
No evidence, just a hunch.
Derek
"Perhaps if we all agreed to wear dark glasses, except in church, we could avoid a law against ogling?"
Heh. :-)
In the interest of fairness... Men look. So do women. Men notice. So do women.
I don't think this rises to the status of "oogling" or "leering" which are certainly not acceptable.
What bothers me isn't that someone looks or notices attractiveness or even comments on it, it's when a person feels compelled to tear someone apart for being ugly or fat or something... as if they have a right.
Perhaps it's the old "if you can't say something nice" rule.
But I really don't think that noticing the particularly attractive young men at an event, or the primal attractiveness of a group of soldiers on leave, or a couple of college age brothers with particularly lanky, masculine builds is *leering* or entertaining lust in one's heart. Leering and lusting is when you wallow in it and leer and lust.
Same for men who notice the attractiveness of girls or women.
Not to mention those who are attracted to the same sex or the fact that straight women notice which women are the best looking women and straight men notice which men are the best looking men.
The idea that a person doesn't even SEE the people around them unless they are leering or oogling is dishonest and foolish. Of course they do.
Oh, and by "foolish" I mean "the cause of extreme emotional pain and societal breakdown."
It's a view of "reality" right out of a category romance where the proof of love is that no one but your beloved exists anymore for you... and logically, the proof of not-love is that you notice that your next door neighbor has a mighty fine butt and a six pack to die for. And what *that* means is that, since "love" trumps all, that the unfortunate fact that Mr. Six Pack has an S.O. and a child means nothing because if *he* loved *her* he wouldn't notice *you*.
Stupid.
People notice, and they will continue to notice. What it isn't is particularly relevant until and unless someone is foolish enough to entertain and encourage the lust in their heart or of the moronic opinion that faithfulness is effortless.
Amazing but nearly as amazing as the face on Mars.
I'm no Obama defender but the photo seems to misrepresent what happened.
The photo captures a second when Obama was turning to guide the black girl behind him down the steps.
He's looking down to where she will step as he is turning around.
He's not ogling the other girl.
Besides, let's be honest, there aint much there worth ogling. Especially for a Brazilian girl.
I'm shocked at the notion that the UN could ever be associated with sexual predation of a minor.
A woman doesn't get babies from being leered at. So what could we get possibly?
A mate.
or the fact that straight women notice which women are the best looking women and straight men notice which men are the best looking men.
Straight men pay no attention at all to which are the best looking men. Straight same sex noticing is peculiar to women, I'd imagine because other women are the competition.
See the pic and Thurber cite here.
Laura(southernxyl) said...
Oh, and all the "get used to it" stuff. I suppose that if a girl doesn't want vulgar comments made about her body she should either wear a burkha so you can't make out any features at all, or just "get used to" the comments. Dang.
Laura, you exaggerate slightly but what you say is essentially correct, even though you meant it sarcastically. Men have an interest in attractive women. Women (including this young woman) present themselves attractively. In our society, an important life skill for attractive young women is how to deal with the visual attention their attractiveness will create.
Now, I agree that it is unfortunate that this young lady had to get a lession in this phenomenon on the front pages of the international press. But this fact is not the fault of Obama, who have a quick, rather discreet and (to some) ambiguous glance. Credit the publicity to the Brazilian press, which dug up and published her name, and to her mortifying parents, who could not resist being quoted.
For the love of God, keep A-Rod out of Brazil!
Laura, reading the article again, I think I should have given the parents a pass. They are not exactly used to dealing with the press.
The Dad says: ""My daughter is not a model and she is not a sex symbol . . . . That photograph has ruined my whole family."
I guess I do not understand Brazilian culture. The ruin of the family seems overwrought to me, but I assume it's a genuine emotion for him.
I was too flip in the way I presented the notion, I'm sure, but the notion is correct: they will have to learn to deal with it.
She got a lession? Did Clinton touch her?
The facts about her life presented in the story show her to be a worthy young woman. This publicity will radically alter her life. And probably not for the better--especially since neither she nor her family have any skills in surfing the media.....She is an evangelical Christian and does not welcome the kind of attention she has received. How long before a hard digging reporter discovers an ex boyfriend and reveals to the world the hypocrisy of her beliefs?
I'm glad JDEERIPPER posted his comment, although so far no one seems to have noticed: Obama, of whom I'm no fan, was NOT ogling the young lady at all, but was stepping down the stairs and assisting another young woman behind him step down. He was looking down at where she would be stepping. The film of this was aired on tv yesterday, and what was happening is clear.
Wow, a Nader voter opines and claims he knows what took place. Dude, you voted for Nader. Reality is something you only rarely encounter. Go back to your room and shut the fuck up.
Time for the Ds to start doing oppo research on this girl and her parents. If Obama's media suppoters can subject them to character assassination and public mockery, then people will think twice about complaining if Obama checks out their daughter's butt.
"Straight men pay no attention at all to which are the best looking men. Straight same sex noticing is peculiar to women, I'd imagine because other women are the competition."
Keep telling yourself that.
Other men are the competition, too, and if men and women go about it differently they *do* do it. Or else there wouldn't be all the male dominance games that are played.
Excellent snark, Lex.
(Though of course *decent* people would never want that to happen to her.)
Other men are the competition, too, and if men and women go about it differently they *do* do it. Or else there wouldn't be all the male dominance games that are played.
Men hanging out with other men do not think about women. They think about whatever the point of the gathering is.
Paglia has almost every male activity as an escape from women.
Which would be their point.
A respite.
Hey, over there everybody. Look it's a UFO.
[everyone goes of to the next diversion]
And really... how many people (fun as it all was) didn't really figure that the photograph was just as likely a trick of perspective as actually catching either of them oogling her? Sort of a "could be" either way?
It would not have been nearly as funny with just Obama, either.
The age of consent is ridiculously irrelevant. First of all, the young lady did not consent, in any way, to having her rear end be the subject of international scrutiny.
Agree about age of consent, but have no problem with discussion of this photo, had the girl’s name not been revealed (and the people talking about her face not being hot enough were completely tacky).
And yet, she was out there in the world and she’s mostly grown. She went to an international conference. There is no reason to believe she was hiding or is exceptionally shy. I’m sure it’s embarrassing, but nothing that I think will scar her for life.
Synova,
Your 7/12/09 11:18 PM comment puts very well, in a folksy uncomplicated way, what I too often fail to get across with far more words. Thanks!
Jag: "now, don't we all feel like scum?"
Not Ann. Because she is never wrong. Salacious lies are only vile when someone ELSE spreads them.
I wonder how different the world would be if Monica Lewinsky's father had a similar reaction?
How could Monica Lewinsky's father have a similar reaction? Similar reaction to what? How is what Monica did in any way, shape, or form related to this girl innocently standing with her back to the camera? Fully and modestly dressed, even?
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