Brazilian World Cup reporter dodges kiss and demands respect
June 26, 2018
A Brazilian sports journalist deftly dodged a man who jumped onscreen to try and kiss her on Sunday in Yekaterinburg before turning to tell him that his actions were unacceptable.
It was the second highly publicized incident of sexual harassment of female reporters at the World Cup, following last week's incident of a man harassing a Colombian journalist during a live broadcast for Deutsche Welle. The man subsequently apologized and called it a "misunderstanding."
The video shows Julia Guimaraes, a sports journalist for Brazil's TV Globo and sportv, standing in front of the stadium in Yekaterinburg before the Senegal-Japan game. She leans away from the man as he tries to kiss her and then turns to tell him off. The 22-second clip went viral on Twitter, with Globo's tweet of the video drawing over 1.9 million views.
"Don't do this! Never do this again," Guimaraes forcefully tells the man. "Don't do this. I don't allow you to do this, never, OK? This is not polite. This is not right. Never do this. Never do this to a woman, OK? Respect."
The man can be heard abashedly saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, OK," from off-screen as Guimaraes rebuked him.
On her personal Twitter account, Guimaraes linked to the Globosport video of the incident.
"It's difficult to find words," she wrote. "Fortunately, I have never experienced this in Brazil! Here it has happened to me twice already. Sad! Shameful!"
In a subsequent Globo article, Guimaraes said that the first incident took place before the Egypt-Uruguay game on June 15, and that she has been experiencing frequent harassment while in Russia, including "aggressive looks" and offensive songs.
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She also said that while she had never been similarly harassed in Brazil, such instances "take place a lot" there. "We've seen it multiple times with press colleagues."
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On-air harassment of female sports journalists is a big issue in Brazil, with many women facing attempted kisses, aggressive physical contact, denigrating language and even violent threats while on the job.
In March, many female Brazilian sports journalists banded together to launch the campaign, #DeixaElaTrabalhar, or "Let Her Work."
The campaign's Twitter account shared the video of Guimaraes in a show of solidarity and encouragement. "We're with you, @juliacgc! Don't let this lamentable episode keep you from shining. Our fight continues."