BREAKING VELCRO WITH KNIVES: ABOUT LESBIAN CUTS AND PATCHES
Keywords: Candomblé; lesbianities; Maria Navalha; lesbian thinking; violence
Based on the connection between the ancestral strength of the trickster Maria Navalha, a figure in African-based religions, and lesbian thought, this dissertation aims to produce the razor as a tool for analyzing oppression. The razor in the African religious tradition functions as an instrument of defense and protection. In the lesbian oral tradition immortalized in the music of Raul Seixas, lesbian women “put their spiders to fight”, in this dissertation, however, the spiders are put to weaving. Adrienne Rich, bell hooks, Donna Haraway, Audre Lorde, Gloria Anzaldúa, Maria Navalha, Maria Mulambo and other lesbians weave a web to store the razor, under their clothes. The Marias, whose bodies are continually violated by patriarchy, sexism and lesbophobia, analyzed their experiences, identifying oppressions. The web woven by spiders also collectively mends bodies torn apart by oppression, so that they can rise again and re-enchant themselves in the streets.