Streaming Like a Girl? The Case of Brazil’s CazéTV During the 2023 Women’s World Cup

This chapter explores the unique way in which the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup (2023 FWWC) was mediated in Brazil. For decades, media coverage of football in the country has been dominated by TV Globo, the largest commercial television network in Latin America. However, for the first time in 2023, FWWC broadcast rights were awarded to CazéTV, a joint venture between Brazilian streamer and influencer Casimiro Miguel (aka Cazé) and the Brazilian media and marketing company LiveMode. CazéTV had already developed a reputation for introducing a new, unconventional formula to football broadcasting in Brazil, often borrowing techniques from gaming and live streaming and injecting a blend of Millennial and Gen Z humour into their online broadcasts. For the 2023 FWWC, CazéTV took this model further while also introducing a considerable “feminist” slant to their coverage by hiring women for core reporting and commentary roles. The aim of this study, therefore, was to analyse CazéTV’s coverage of the 2023 FWWC. Using a feminist lens, the chapter explores if, despite all the hype, CazéTV actually reproduces or challenges the orthodox gender stereotypes usually seen in mainstream media coverage of Brazilian football. Using a thematic analysis (TA), the chapter systematically analyses images and text found in CazéTV’s posts on Instagram during the 2023 FWWC. The chapter explores the common themes and underlying meanings of the content posted on the account during the tournament and critically expands on the reality of the CazéTV “revolution”: that is, while CazéTV may “stream like a girl”, such transformations actually reflect a core feature of neoliberal feminism in that “change” is commercially motivated and is, at best, limited. The chapter ultimately suggests that any shifts in gender relations prompted by CazéTV are, in essence, ma non troppo.