Deize Tigrona at the 2016 Back2Black music festival. CC BY-SA

Adriana Facina , Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

At first sight, there is seemingly nothing feminist about Carioca funk, the electronic dance music coming out of Rio de Janeiros poor favelas. Nearly all the songs sung by women are of the sexually explicit, sometimes violent funk putaria variety hardly empowering.

At least, thats what I thought when I began my post-doctoral research into the genre in 2008. From my white, middle-class perspective, the salacious lyrics were an expression of machismo, borne of Brazils patriarchal society. I understood this type of music, along with the artists suggestive performance styles and outfits, as objectification of women that further subjected them to male power.

I couldnt have been more off base. In truth, by singing frankly about sex and life on the streets in the first person, Rios female funk singers are bringing the rough realities of the citys toughest neighbourhoods to mainstream audiences and emboldening a new generation of young female artists.