The Patriarchal Coup
Brazil is facing a political crisis of unprecedented dimensions in its young democracy. Just how much of it stems from misogyny?
In 2011 Dilma Rousseff was elected Brazil’s first female president. Her first presidential campaign was carried out under ex-president Lula’s blessing: she had been his Chief of Staff between 2005 and 2010, and had been Minister of Energy in his first term, between 2003 and 2005.
Amid mounting political tension, she was elected for a second term in October 2014. As you might have read elsewhere, Brazil is currently being rattled by possibly the worst political crisis it has ever faced during its young (and admittedly fragile) democracy. Though still far from being the darkest moment in a country that was, let’s face it, built with the blood and tears of enslaved peoples, and that lived through a murderous US-backed military dictatorship between 1964 and 1985, this is still a moment for concern. A moment to be alert.
The political crisis we are now witnessing encompasses a number of complicated, convoluted circumstances. Roussef and her Workers Party (PT) have utterly failed to live up to their promises of a left-oriented government, and their alliance with centrist and right wing parties in the name of “governability” is, certainly, one of the triggers for all of this. The fact that the 2014 elections have also resulted in the most conservative Lower House of Congress since the end of the dictatorship (with evangelical and neopentecostal denominations alone holding around 15% of seats) has also impacted the political climate. The political polarization in a country where the economic and social development led by PT facilitated the emergence of a new middle class (and the subsequent disruption of an old oligarchic order) is also a trigger for this situation.
I could go on listing probable causes for this crisis for a while, but this essay takes interest in one particular reason: misogyny. Being the first woman to ever hold presidential office in Brazil, Rousseff has been targeted with a staggering outpour of misogyny coming from her political detractors. The particular brand of viciousness of these attacks would never be bestowed upon a man; even her mentor and predecessor Lula, utterly despised by oligarchies (largely for his past as a union leader and humble beginnings as a migrant from the poorer Northeast region) has not been subjected to this kind of public humiliation.
During the opening ceremony for the World Cup in 2014, President Rousseff was booed by a full stadium; the crowd can be heard chanting “Ei, Dilma, vai tomar no cu” — that is, “Hey, Dilma, take it in the ass”. The public chanting this demeaning insult for all the world to hear was middle to upper class — precisely the part of Brazilian society where opposition to Rousseff and PT is strongest. Booing was clearly not enough for the crowd to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with Rousseff: they needed to humiliate her, put her in her place. They needed to insult her sexually.
These are the same oligarchies that, right now, are taking to the streets to demand her impeachment. The same oligarchies that demand a total ban on the right for abortion (but that look for private, expensive, illegal clinics when their 15 year-old daughters unitentionally become pregnant). The same oligarchies that support Jair Bolsonaro, Pedro Paulo, Aécio Neves, and a number of other politicians known to harass women, defend policies that attack our human rights, and who in some cases (such as Pedro Paulo’s) are known wife beaters.
The persecution directed towards President Rousseff may even start from political divergences, but it quickly unravels as pure, violent, misogyny. It stems from a deep-seated need to humiliate any woman who has the audacity to rise above what has been determined is her place in patriarchy: that of subservience. Last year, stickers juxtaposing the President’s portrait with a photo of two open legs started being commercialized online. They were supposed to be installed in cars, around the gas opening; the intention was to suggest that the President was being raped by the gas pump in a supposed protest against an increase in gas prices. Active in Marxist guerrilla groups during the military dictatorship, Rousseff was imprisoned and tortured for years; among her injuries, a uterine haemorrhage, knocked out teeth, and a ruined jaw. Rape, among other forms of sexual torture, was one of the dictatorship’s choice weapons against women prisoners. The rape threat in this sticker resonates the country’s violent patriarchal, militaristic history.
In the pro-impeachment protests that flooded the streets on March 13th, many posters proudly displayed misogynistic attacks on the president. This one, in the northeastern city of Recife, refers to Rousseff as a “quenga”, a slur meaning “ho”. Criticisms to Dilma have, also, long focused on her appearance: fat, old, ugly, not well dressed enough.
I had wanted to write an essay about the misogynistic discourse against President Rousseff ever since the political crisis took a turn for the worst, a few weeks ago. The magazine cover above was the final trigger for me to sit down on a beautiful, sunny Sunday afternoon and write this essay. Isto É, one of the country’s leading publications, published this yesterday: it depicts a (digitally manipulated) photo of President Rousseff with her mouth wide open, and a deranged expression on her face. The text reads “The President’s fits: in an uncontrollable breakdown with her imminent removal from Office and completely out of herself, Dilma breaks furniture in the presidential palace, screams with subordinates, curses at authorities, attacks constitutional powers and loses (also) the emotional stability needed to rule the country.”
The discourse — visual and linguistic — here is clear: being a woman, Rousseff is of course emotional, irrational, incapable of thinking and acting coolly. As a woman in a leadership position, she is bossy, overly dominating and aggressive — that is, a bitch. In short, her womanhood makes her unfit to lead a nation. Associating femininity with all of these characteristics is nothing new; the dualist (Eurocentric) perception of gender determines masculinity and manhood to be the pinnacle of culture: rational, calm, collected. Femininity and womanhood, in contrast, are associated with nature: irrational, emotional, impulsive.
Without mentioning any fact-checking research, Isto É states that Rousseff has been taking sedative and anti psychic medications — Rivotril and Olanzapine — in order to maintain a minimum of sanity since the start of the impeachment process. In lieu of contacting an expert — a psychologist, psychistrist, researcher — journalists Sérgio Pardellas and Débora Bergamasco take it upon themselves to analyse and interpret the President’s supposed mental state. Adding insult to injury, they end the article with a direct comparison between Rousseff’s “emotional imbalance” and that of queen Maria I, known as “A louca” — “The Crazy” — not coincidentally, the first woman to rule Brazil. Although the Portuguese dynasty that colonised Brazil has a long history of inept rulers, Isto É’s choice to single out the first queen only reinforces the misogynistic tone of the article.
Rousseff is far from being the first, or only, woman to endure this kind of attack. Luciana Genro, from the left-wing PSOL party recently was the target of a death threat from Brasil247 writer and PT supporter Breno Altman; Marina Silva, presidential candidate against Dilma in the last election, was targeted by a wave of racist, classist, xenophobic and misogynistic attacks; congresswoman Maria do Rosário was told by congressman Jair Bolsonaro that “he wouldn’t rape her, but just because she didn’t even deserve that.”
Regardless of political positions, these misogynistic attacks are clearly aimed at maintaining Brazilian women in a place of subservience. They send the message that women cannot aspire to actively participate in the political life of the country, lest they be the target of violent, misogynistic vitriol. The country is, however, changing: although conservative segments still propagate these values, a strong and well articulated feminist movement has bloomed in the country in the past years. It is up to us to question this abuse, to fight back, and to ensure that future generations of girls, women, and feminine folks are not subjected to these same violences.
As for Rousseff’s situation, the often-repeated phrase “impeachment without a crime means coup” maybe needs an addition: “an impeachment based on misogyny is a patriarchal coup”.
