Feminist protests since 2010: the emergence of a new feminist activism in Brazil

• Grant number: 23/05004-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2023
• End date: June 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology
• Principal Investigator: Rúrion Soares Melo
• Grantee: Nayane Victória Brassaroto de Macedo
• Host Institution: Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento (CEBRAP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 19/22387-0 - Crises of democracy: critical theory and the diagnosis of present time, AP.TEM

Abstract

This project is part of the FAPESP Thematic Project nº 2019/22387-0 "Democracy Crises: Critical Theory and diagnosis of the present time", developed by the Núcleo de Direito e Democracia of CEBRAP, which corresponds to the second subproject, called "Public sphere and crisis of democracy: economic, cultural and political dimensions of counterpublics". The research aims to identify and systematize, based on press and internet data, the feminist street protest that took place between 2011 and 2018. This time frame was chosen because in 2011 the SlutWalk protest began and in 2018 the national #EleNão movement mobilized Brazilian women. There is an interest in understanding the connections and differences between these periods, since the selected timeline highlights the growth of street protests promoted by a new feminist activism action. #EleNão protests are placed in a more defensive agenda because of the transition in Brazil to a more conservative political context. Furthermore, it intends to analyze the discursive disputes that were present in the feminist movement and what consequences these differences caused.The research intends to build a database that identifies and systematizes images and videos of the protests that are available in the press and on social networks, as well as newspaper reports and other sources of data already collected in the research. The objective is to identify which were the main actresses and the main actors involved in this process - the organizers of the protest and the walkers -, which protests occurred and which were the dimensions of the protests in Brazil. Finally, this database enables the elaboration of an analysis not only of the protests themselves, but also of the discourses and spaces used by feminist subaltern counterpublics and their articulation with the public sphere.In order to build a database made up of news, images, videos, newspapers and the digital platforms (like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube), the research stages described below present different methodologies. In sum, three steps stand out: (i) construction of the database, (ii) identification of the most prominent feminist groups and their main leaders in each period, and it's agendas, modes of action and performance, and (iii) analysis of the discourses and spaces used by subaltern feminist counterpublics and their articulation with the public sphere.Therefore, the research emerges from the need to seek to understand the developments in the Brazilian political situation, between 2010 and 2018, that culminated in a new feminist activism in Brazil. This new activism begins with the movements promoted by SlutWalk in 2010 and later unfolds in the national feminist protests of #EleNão, that was a reaction to the transition to a more conservative political context. Thus, this research aims to identify and systematize the new feminist activism in Brazil and it´s feminist counterpublics.