Why you must watch ‘Girls from Ipanema’

Yet again Netflix comes up with a great show titled, ‘Girls from Ipanema.’ This film accentuates all the prerequisites of a good film. (Cinematography, Music, Dialogues, Great Character Building)

A Little Context

Girls from Ipanema is about, Maria Luiza, married to Pedro hailing from a wealthy family in Sao Paulo, with her son. Although unhappy with the ideal wife, Malu maintains her responsibility as her mother, hoping one day Pedro miraculously disappeared to Rio with all their money, leaving her nothing would come back. Forced to live with her parents in Sao Paulo, she goes to Rio de Janeiro in search of him. The story is about how she reignites her love for music and decides to open a music club with her girl gang.

This quote perfectly sums up my experience watching the show,

“Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.”

Maya Angelou

Three Reasons Why I Love the Show

Girls from Ipanema introduced me to a whole new genre of music – Bossa Nava. This tv show only strengthened my love for binging more foreign shows since it was in Portuguese. One thing I love more than my darling puppy is women standing up for each other, it’s so empowering, I always end up teary-eyed.

Connecting the dots – TVs shows to Online Courses

While watching Girls from Ipanema, I connected the dots to a course I had done on ‘Gender and Environment’ by the UN. Over the years I learned the unspoken gender roles in our natural environment. Doing the course, not only did I widen the worldview I learned women were systematically denied basic human rights and dignities.

Let me give you a small example to help you understand the depth of the problem. As I was studying Gender and Land Degradation, I learnt out of 196 countries, women were given land rights only in 28, out of which women were seated in meeting only to show officials that “women were represented and they are adapting to modern times” when in reality their voices were overshadowed by the men.

Put on your special ‘Gender Sunglasses’ on

Traditionally land is viewed by both men and women differently. Men look at it for a commercial purpose, trying to bring in extra cash flow into the household.

Women, on the other hand, view the land from two perspectives: Health and Safety. In terms of health, during the past couple of decades and thanks to our clingy best friend Climate Change the temperatures have steadily risen, heatwaves, droughts and floods have become more frequent which has forced women to walk long distances to fetch water or collect firewood. This has led to an increase in fatigue, back/neck pain. And in terms of safety, women fear walking long distances in the fright they might get raped

Back to the Show

Viewing Girls from Ipanema only strengthened my view on women irrespective of geography are denied certain basic privileges, rights and dignities. Young girls are brought up with the mindset of marriage being the end deal of life. I have heard this dialogue far too many times for my liking in tv shows, “If the marriage is troubled, then have a child, it will solve problems.” which infuriates me to the nth degree. (No Susan having a child doesn’t solve any goddamn issues)

Girls from Ipanema brought out the subtleties of oppression faced by women all around the world.

But seeing women have each other backs, is what motivates me to maintain and write my blog as I feel empowered writing about things that matter, and this made it to the list.

Picture Credits: https://checkersaga.com/girls-from-ipanema-season-2-release-date-plot-cast-trailer-and-everything-about-the-netflix-period-drama/46979/