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In Defense of Honor: Sexual Morality, Modernity, and Nation in Early-Twentieth-Century Brazil
In this book Sueann Caulfield explores the changing meanings of honor in early-twentieth-century Brazil, a period that saw an extraordinary proliferation of public debates that linked morality, modernity, honor, and national progress. With a close examination of legal theory on sexual offenses and case law in Rio de Janeiro from the end of World War I to the early years of the Estado Novo dictatorship, Caulfield reveals how everyday interpretations of honor influenced official attitudes and even the law itself as Brazil attempted to modernize.
While some Brazilian elites used the issue of sexual purity to boast of their country’s moral superiority, others claimed that the veneration of such concepts as virginity actually frustrated efforts at modernization. Moreover, although individuals of all social classes invoked values they considered “traditional,” such as the confinement of women’s sexuality within marriage, these values were at odds with social practices—such as premarital sex, cohabitation, divorce, and female-headed households—that had been common throughout Brazil’s history. The persistence of these practices, together with post-World War I changes in both official and popular moral ideals, presented formidable obstacles to the Estado Novo’s renewed drive to define and enforce public morality and private family values in the late 1930s.
With sophisticated theoretical underpinnings, In Defense of Honor is written in a clear and lively manner, making it accessible to students and scholars in a variety of disciplines, including Brazilian and Latin American studies, gender studies, and legal history.
While some Brazilian elites used the issue of sexual purity to boast of their country’s moral superiority, others claimed that the veneration of such concepts as virginity actually frustrated efforts at modernization. Moreover, although individuals of all social classes invoked values they considered “traditional,” such as the confinement of women’s sexuality within marriage, these values were at odds with social practices—such as premarital sex, cohabitation, divorce, and female-headed households—that had been common throughout Brazil’s history. The persistence of these practices, together with post-World War I changes in both official and popular moral ideals, presented formidable obstacles to the Estado Novo’s renewed drive to define and enforce public morality and private family values in the late 1930s.
With sophisticated theoretical underpinnings, In Defense of Honor is written in a clear and lively manner, making it accessible to students and scholars in a variety of disciplines, including Brazilian and Latin American studies, gender studies, and legal history.
328 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1999
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November 26, 2025
In the 1920s and 1930s, Brazil continued constructing a national identity that could fully integrate the diverse and large population of the country, scattered in a territory half the size of South America. Within this exercise of nation-building, European values of modernity, sanitation, and civility merged with national policies and hierarchies based on race, class, and gender. As a result, politicians and statesmen pushed for social and urban reforms, yet they often encountered opposition from popular sectors. Simultaneously, with the rise of the middle class, women who had previously been pushed to the margins of society began participating more actively in public life, as global trends that promoted their rights and emancipation empowered them to become politically active. This consequently provoked growing social anxieties among the most conservative sectors of Brazilian society, men who now believed that the traditional gender norms and family values that defined the country were under threat.
Sueann Caulfield examines in this monograph the confluence of the public and private spheres as working and middle-class women began to take a more active role in Brazilian society, defying previous conceptions on honor, sexuality, and gender norms. Through the analysis of judicial trials regarding the ‘deflowering’ of virgins, Caulfield seeks ‘‘to understand the relationship between the role of sexual honor in everyday personal choices and its role in public debates over the modernization of the Brazilian nation’’ (pp.3–4). Chapter 1 offers a sweeping analysis of Brazilian legal tradition, from the empire to the republican era, looking at the 1830’s criminal code and its recurrent legacies, the penal code promulgated in 1890, and the 1891’s Constitution that followed. Chapter 2 looks at the city of Rio de Janeiro. By centering on the official visit of the Belgian royal family in 1920, Caulfield gives an ample view on the modernizing and sanitizing discourses at the time, how they were brought into the political arena, and subsequently led to projects transforming the city, and with it, its citizens. Chapter 3 examines contemporary debates on honor, sexuality and attempts to reform social behaviors. Finally, the last two chapters of the book look at the different cases of ‘deflowering’ from different perspectives, examining defendants and victims alike. Chapter 4 analyzes how honor was understood and interpreted by different social actors, defense strategies employed and arguments followed to prosecute those who had acted deliberately and with evildoing. Chapter 5 brings the role that color and race played in these trials. Although not explicitly stated in many cases, Caulfield demonstrates how racial hierarchies still permeated in these hearings and influenced the judges’ decisions.
When assessing the documentary evidence, the legacies of the imperial penal code in Brazilian society are still very present in these judicial hearings. Honor became attached to personal virtue, which inevitably was connected to the family’s reputation and the patriarchal figure in charge. This belief set the basis of Brazilian understanding of family values, and during the republican period, despite changes in social attitudes and the legal code, honor continued to be linked with the family, going beyond an individual’s expression.
Looking at the early decades of the twentieth century, Caulfield argues that Brazil experienced a new dilemma; as attempts to bridge racial inequalities were translated into state efforts in constructing a myth of racial harmony, debates regarding civility and sanitation often materialized into projects of urban renewal that sought to display Brazil’s modernity to the world. Taking the city of Rio de Janeiro as a case study, Caulfield argues that deliberately, these projects often entailed the further demarcation of social inequalities within urban spaces, as prostitutes and other social pariahs were pushed to the outer districts, far from the city’s elites. Yet, this did not stop the increasing participation of women in public life. A global phenomenon, many women began advocating for their rights, looking at new opportunities to redefine their status and role in society. In the case of Brazil, public spaces like samba schools, cafes, and plazas welcomed their integration and facilitated their creation of new social circles. However, this provoked a response from the conservative circles of the city, who believed this liberation attacked the traditional Christian values of the country, producing a moral crisis. In the political sphere, debates between conservatives and liberals evidenced the contrasting beliefs and policies followed to respond to these new social realities. Some believed prostitution should be abolished, while others looked at it as a ‘necessary evil’ to contain men’s driving sexual desires. The case of Afrânio Peixoto illuminates these competing ideologies. A liberal, Peixoto accused Brazilians of suffering ‘‘hymenolatry’’, a belief that an intact hymen determined a woman’s sexual purity. His argument revealed how common conceptions of sexual honor were often sustained on erroneous ideas, leading to wrong decisions that affected the lives of citizens.
Multiple interpretations of sexual honor are evident in these ‘deflowering’ trials. Men often accused these women of sexual liberty and misconduct to legitimize their sexual encounters, evidencing how for them, ‘‘women’s honor depended on their submission to patriarchal vigilance’’ (p.113). If a woman had agreed on having sex, she was therefore to blame for not being under protection or vigilance. This double standard showed how men could use this strategy to exculpate themselves, while they reinforced the gender divide and patriarchal obedience expected from women. However, in these trials women also redefined the meanings of honor attributed and expected from them, and by doing so ‘‘deviated from prescribed gender norms and attitudes, performing roles and expressing values that helped stretch the boundaries of what it meant to be a mother, an honest girl, and a free woman’’ (p.137). Ultimately, in these ‘deflowering trials’’, despite not being publicly explicit, color and racial ideologies permeated and influenced decision-making. In many cases, the families initiating these trials accused males with a lighter skin tone, expecting them to marry their daughters, evidencing attempts for social mobility. In the case of men, most cases linked them with women of darker skin tone, which might show how color perception acted in choosing sexual partners. Women with darker skin tone were often preferred for casual sex, whereas those with lighter skin tone were regarded as potential marriage partners. These racial attitudes, in fact, promoted color endogamy and evidenced how entrenched these racial hierarchies were in the most popular classes of Brazilian society.
In conclusion, In Defense of Honor offers a glimpse of how sexual integrity and honor were perceived in early twentieth-century Brazil through the examination of these ‘deflowering’ trials, and the extent women navigated between changing definitions of the public and private to defend their morality and position within a patriarchal society. Following Vargas’ ascent to power, the Estado Novo initiated a campaign to monopolize traditional values associated with family and sexual integrity, constructing a new state policy that legitimized the increasing authoritarian power of the government, at the same time it strengthened the existing social and gender divisions, perpetuating women’s position as subordinated to the figure of a protector or a family guardian.
Sueann Caulfield examines in this monograph the confluence of the public and private spheres as working and middle-class women began to take a more active role in Brazilian society, defying previous conceptions on honor, sexuality, and gender norms. Through the analysis of judicial trials regarding the ‘deflowering’ of virgins, Caulfield seeks ‘‘to understand the relationship between the role of sexual honor in everyday personal choices and its role in public debates over the modernization of the Brazilian nation’’ (pp.3–4). Chapter 1 offers a sweeping analysis of Brazilian legal tradition, from the empire to the republican era, looking at the 1830’s criminal code and its recurrent legacies, the penal code promulgated in 1890, and the 1891’s Constitution that followed. Chapter 2 looks at the city of Rio de Janeiro. By centering on the official visit of the Belgian royal family in 1920, Caulfield gives an ample view on the modernizing and sanitizing discourses at the time, how they were brought into the political arena, and subsequently led to projects transforming the city, and with it, its citizens. Chapter 3 examines contemporary debates on honor, sexuality and attempts to reform social behaviors. Finally, the last two chapters of the book look at the different cases of ‘deflowering’ from different perspectives, examining defendants and victims alike. Chapter 4 analyzes how honor was understood and interpreted by different social actors, defense strategies employed and arguments followed to prosecute those who had acted deliberately and with evildoing. Chapter 5 brings the role that color and race played in these trials. Although not explicitly stated in many cases, Caulfield demonstrates how racial hierarchies still permeated in these hearings and influenced the judges’ decisions.
When assessing the documentary evidence, the legacies of the imperial penal code in Brazilian society are still very present in these judicial hearings. Honor became attached to personal virtue, which inevitably was connected to the family’s reputation and the patriarchal figure in charge. This belief set the basis of Brazilian understanding of family values, and during the republican period, despite changes in social attitudes and the legal code, honor continued to be linked with the family, going beyond an individual’s expression.
Looking at the early decades of the twentieth century, Caulfield argues that Brazil experienced a new dilemma; as attempts to bridge racial inequalities were translated into state efforts in constructing a myth of racial harmony, debates regarding civility and sanitation often materialized into projects of urban renewal that sought to display Brazil’s modernity to the world. Taking the city of Rio de Janeiro as a case study, Caulfield argues that deliberately, these projects often entailed the further demarcation of social inequalities within urban spaces, as prostitutes and other social pariahs were pushed to the outer districts, far from the city’s elites. Yet, this did not stop the increasing participation of women in public life. A global phenomenon, many women began advocating for their rights, looking at new opportunities to redefine their status and role in society. In the case of Brazil, public spaces like samba schools, cafes, and plazas welcomed their integration and facilitated their creation of new social circles. However, this provoked a response from the conservative circles of the city, who believed this liberation attacked the traditional Christian values of the country, producing a moral crisis. In the political sphere, debates between conservatives and liberals evidenced the contrasting beliefs and policies followed to respond to these new social realities. Some believed prostitution should be abolished, while others looked at it as a ‘necessary evil’ to contain men’s driving sexual desires. The case of Afrânio Peixoto illuminates these competing ideologies. A liberal, Peixoto accused Brazilians of suffering ‘‘hymenolatry’’, a belief that an intact hymen determined a woman’s sexual purity. His argument revealed how common conceptions of sexual honor were often sustained on erroneous ideas, leading to wrong decisions that affected the lives of citizens.
Multiple interpretations of sexual honor are evident in these ‘deflowering’ trials. Men often accused these women of sexual liberty and misconduct to legitimize their sexual encounters, evidencing how for them, ‘‘women’s honor depended on their submission to patriarchal vigilance’’ (p.113). If a woman had agreed on having sex, she was therefore to blame for not being under protection or vigilance. This double standard showed how men could use this strategy to exculpate themselves, while they reinforced the gender divide and patriarchal obedience expected from women. However, in these trials women also redefined the meanings of honor attributed and expected from them, and by doing so ‘‘deviated from prescribed gender norms and attitudes, performing roles and expressing values that helped stretch the boundaries of what it meant to be a mother, an honest girl, and a free woman’’ (p.137). Ultimately, in these ‘deflowering trials’’, despite not being publicly explicit, color and racial ideologies permeated and influenced decision-making. In many cases, the families initiating these trials accused males with a lighter skin tone, expecting them to marry their daughters, evidencing attempts for social mobility. In the case of men, most cases linked them with women of darker skin tone, which might show how color perception acted in choosing sexual partners. Women with darker skin tone were often preferred for casual sex, whereas those with lighter skin tone were regarded as potential marriage partners. These racial attitudes, in fact, promoted color endogamy and evidenced how entrenched these racial hierarchies were in the most popular classes of Brazilian society.
In conclusion, In Defense of Honor offers a glimpse of how sexual integrity and honor were perceived in early twentieth-century Brazil through the examination of these ‘deflowering’ trials, and the extent women navigated between changing definitions of the public and private to defend their morality and position within a patriarchal society. Following Vargas’ ascent to power, the Estado Novo initiated a campaign to monopolize traditional values associated with family and sexual integrity, constructing a new state policy that legitimized the increasing authoritarian power of the government, at the same time it strengthened the existing social and gender divisions, perpetuating women’s position as subordinated to the figure of a protector or a family guardian.
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