In Brazil, this year, September brought to light reflections on the celebration of our independence from Portugal in 1822. A tension of voices in schools echoed across our country in spaces colored green, yellow, and... Pink!
Since 2014, also in Brazil, the color yellow, in September, has been associated with suicide prevention. The Brazilian Psychiatric Association (ABP), in partnership with the Federal Council of Medicine (CFM), launched a campaign in 2023 whose theme, this year, is to remind everyone about the importance of other people in our lives.
When we suggest expanding the debate on “others in our lives,” the challenge seems to be how we deal with what is different, listening to the voices that, at first, seem so distant from our own. Recently, the color pink seems to have brought, around the world, the possibility of creating counterpoints in this field, a chance for us to pay more attention to our inability to see beyond what our eyes can see.
Dressed in various shades of pink, we saw a crowd wandering toward the movie theaters to watch Barbie - at first, just women and girls with their mothers, grandmothers, and aunts. Gradually, others joined them – brothers, cousins, boyfriends, and husbands. The film Barbie went beyond the box office phenomenon and profit for its producers – it planted the seed of counterpoint in hearts and minds. Without ruining your possible trip to the cinema with spoilers, I can guarantee that it will be impossible not to (re) think about what the main characters proposed: the roles established for men and women in our society.
The fight against prejudice and misinformation in all fields seems vital at this time in our lives when our certainties need to be reviewed with love, attention, and calm. Utopias? The poet would tell us how sad the world is without them.
Vanessa Meirelles
Psychopedagogue Human Identity Researcher
Master in Social Psychology from PUC São Paulo
Member of the Brazilian Association of Psychopedagogy - ABPp 722
Image : Pawel Czerwinski