Brazil the land of sand, surf, carnival, and hot, hot Brazilian girls.  These beautiful Rio women are very hot, but they don’t speak Spanish they speak Portuguese.  Way too many American and European men start off on the wrong foot when they try to impress these beautiful Latin ladies with a few lines of their high school Spanish.  For linguist there is not a huge difference between Spanish and Portuguese, but for the hot girl from Rio there is a huge difference.   Maybe, she’ll laugh.

photo credit: Shameless Charlotte

Brazilian Beauties

Brazil is becoming a real epicenter of the modern international dating industry.  Part of the equation is easy to understand.  The women in Brazil are simply hot.  The women in Brazil are as ethnically mixed as anywhere in the world.  In fact in a 2008 survey conducted by the Brazilian government 48.43% of Brazilians declared themselves white, 43.80% identified themselves as multi-racial, 6.84% as Black, and about one percent said they were Asian, Amerindian, or something else. In a country of nearly 200 million people that one percent amounts to nearly 2,000,000 people, so there are certainly a diverse mix of hot girls with a variety of looks.

Most Brazilians beauties are descended from Portuguese settlers, African slaves brought over to work on the sugar and coffee plantations, and the native Amerindian inhabitants.  So, the stereotypical Brazilian woman is a slim dark eyed with mocha, tan, white, or bronze skin tone.  The stereotype is true to an extent Brazilian bikini girls really do fall into a unique category.

However, compelling and attractive that stereotype is it is also just about as likely to be wrong.  Brazilian women in pretty much come in every shade and ethnic mix imaginable.  Many of Brazil’s more prominent families are proud of their strong Spanish or Portuguese background.   Many other Brazilian women are descended from the large number of Italian immigrants who came to the country from about 1890 to 1930.

This is a pretty common ethnic mix for Latin America, but it is really just the tip of the iceberg for Brazil.  There are lots of hot Brazilian babes of Japanese descent, because according to the Brazilian government there are nearly 1.5 million Brazilians of Japanese ancestry.

photo credit: arugatse

Rio Girls

There are even Brazilian redneck girls with certified Confederate heritage.  You see after the South got stomped in the American Civil War some of the defeated Southerners decided to pack up and move to Brazil.  These people were known as Confederos and they introduced watermelons, pecans, and fried chicken to Brazil.  Wow!  I would say Brazil won the Civil War.  Anyhow, if you meet a hot Brazilian girl who seems to have a special affinity for NASCAR, bass fishing, and watermelon, maybe she’s a Confederos.

After World War II there was another wave of immigrants from a country that suffered a catastrophic military defeat when considerable Germans immigrated to Brazil and many blond Brazilian bikini girls are the descendants of these honest German soldiers.  Don’t even bother to ask what grampa did during the war, because the answer is always the same, “He was just a common soldier.”  Yes, that’s probably not true, but you can bet that the Brazilian cutie believes it, so you would be wise not to press too much about her grandfather’s service for the Reich particularly if the old man is still alive and seems very worried about being photographed and mumbles constantly about the Mossad.

In recent years there substantial numbers of Middle Easterners, mostly Syrians and Lebanese,  and Eastern Europeans, mostly Ukrainians, have immigrated to Brazil.  So, Brazil really is a bubbling melting pot.

photo credit: Sérgio Savaman Savarese

Brazilian Bikini Babes

Furthermore, because of the all pervasive beach culture Rio girls, regardless of their class or race, tend to be fit, toned, and sexy.  In fact, you will run into far more athletic toned Brazilian girls than you will from any other Latin countries, because every Brazilian girl knows that ten months out of the year she has to be able to look good in a tiny micro bikini.  That pushes a lot of Brazilian girls into becoming gung-ho gym rats.  Most guys don’t think it’s a bad thing, but remember Brazilian men are more or less equally fitness obsessed and perhaps even more fashion conscious .

So, if you want to successfully date the girl from Ipanema you need to throw out the Cheetohs and get to the gym.  As a guy from the US, the EU, Canada, or Australia you have some intangibles going for you, but very few beautiful Rio babes are going to give a fat guy a second look.  You don’t have to be an Adonis, but you do need to make an effort to get in at least passable shape, dress well, and show great manners.

Brazil’s growth as a center of the Latin mail order bride movement in the last few years is surprising, because during this period the Brazilian economy has boomed and it seems odd that so many women are signing up for mail order bride services.   Certainly, the critics of the modern mail order bride movement are perplexed about why beautiful, talented, intelligent young women from a country that is poised to potentially become the economic and political powerhouse of the twenty-first century are willing to marry foreign men without a long traditional courtship.

Brazilian Mail Order Brides

The truth is that all of the countries with a strong mail order bride industry are also heavily male dominated societies, but societies where women still have some free will.  That is certainly the case in Brazil.   Brazilian women did not win the right to vote until 1933 and they did not get the right to divorce their husbands until 1977.

Brazilian men have a huge reputation for being macho guys hung up on respect and honor.  Now, respect and honor are nice concepts and have a place, but one of the big attractions of Western men for Brazilian women is that American and European men tend to be more laid back, more open to communication, and more willing to be a partner instead of a boss.  Too many Brazilian men treat their girlfriends like their possessions and so a Canadian or Australian who is more relaxed and less jealous can be extremely attractive to a Brazilian bikini babe.  Not all Brazilian men are hyper jealous control freaks, but enough are that a guy from Texas or Toronto, even a pretty conservative guy is probably going to seem like a breath of fresh air.

The growth of satellite television and the internet have been really great for American and European men, because all of these women watch American romantic comedies and think that American guys are just like the loveable, sweet guys in the movies.  And I suppose the European guys should put in a good word for Hugh Grant.  Anyhow, all of these media portrayals of dating, marriage, and family in the US and Europe look pretty good to girls used to the stereotypical Brazilian macho guys.  The fact that many of the guys that go after mail order brides are older probably helps even more, because they are probably a little more relaxed and open than younger guys.

Date the Girl From Ipanema

Regardless, you can bet that lots of Brazilian girls in the last decade have had friends and relatives marry guys from Ohio, Ontario, and Oklahoma.  If these ladies were not generally happy there would not be nearly so many beautiful fit Brazilian babes signing up for mail order bride agencies.   The strange thing about this is that by American, Canadian, Australian, and European standards most Brazilian women are pretty conservative.  They are really a lot like American women in the 1950s – except for a much more open attitude about sex and micro bikinis.   The problem is that the attitude of most Brazilian men towards marriage and family is closer to the 1550s.

So, maybe with a little luck you can date the girl from Ipanema.