Obama and Dilma in Love: Race and Gender in the Realm of Political Humor

Abstract

This chapter investigates how political cartoons and Internet memes represent Obama’s relationship with the first woman president in Brazil, Dilma Rousseff (2011–2016), especially focusing on the 2013 U.S. espionage scandal. In many of the cartoons and memes, there is an interesting interplay between race and gender, as Obama appears infatuated by Rousseff. Therefore, the United States’ eavesdropping is not portrayed as a serious diplomatic incident between two nations, but rather as a humorous gender-play in which Obama is sexually obsessed with Dilma and pursues her romantically. This trend celebrates miscegenation, a notion at the very core of Brazilian national identity. Nevertheless, the U.S. president also emerges in several cartoons as an instrument of imperialism and a tyrant who wants to steal Brazil’s secret riches.