Monday 10 January 2011

Brazil's new President: feminist or figurine?

Harmless fun, or a possible
criminal offence?
Google News has picked up the news that Brazil's new President Dilma Rousseff has been rendered into the form of a doll, complete with red dress and presidential sash, by figurine maker and collector Marcus Baby.  This, he says, is a "purely artistic exercise" which is not connected with any political posturing. According to the doll's creator,
"The creation of a Dilma Rousseff doll comes exclusively from the indisputable, historical fact that the actual president is visually interesting as inspiration for the type of art I do. That is all". 
What the President, a noted feminist and campaigner for women to take a greater share of the power in Brazil, feels about being put into doll format without her consent is as yet unknown. In some countries an activity which is deemed to be an insult to the Head of State may give rise to criminal prosecution, but in Brazil it is unclear what the situation is. According to Wikipedia,
"In Brazil, defamation is a crime, which is prosecuted either as “defamation” (three months to a year in prison, plus fine; Article 139 of the Penal Code), “calumny” (six months to two years in prison, plus fine; Article 138 of the PC) and/or “injury” (one to six months in prison, or fine; Article 140), with aggravating penalties when the crime is practised in public (Article 141, item III). Incitation to hate and violence is also foreseen in the Penal Code (incitation to a crime, Article 286). ...".
Images of the President Dilma Rousseff doll are on Marcus Baby's web page here.

Source: "For artist, Brazil's new president is a doll", Google News

1 comment:

el señor dionigi said...

Very interesting blog. I just discovered it thanks to IPkat newsletter.
I'm a copyright student and lawyer with art interests so I'm going to read through your posts with a lot of interest.
I'm starting right now a Phd in this subject-matter so I reserve myself to contact you further in my studies...!