lued—former governor Sergio Cabral once described favelas as “factories for producing criminals”—Gizele writes that women of the favela will continue “speaking, writing, shouting and demanding” their rights. For writer Juliana Borges, black feminism allows women to “love bravely,” to “subvert historical images and constructions,” and ultimately “destroy and transform the oppression” facing them.
Technology against harassment
When a 12-year-old female contestant on MasterChef Junior was the target of creepy tweets from men, journalist and feminist Juliana de Faria began tweeting about her experiences of harassment as a kid. The hashtag #MeuPrimeiroAssedio—“my first harassment”—went viral with over 90,000 tweets as tens of thousands of women shared their stories of harassment and assault as children. Some women shared experiences at ages as young as five, often in everyday spaces from the supermarket to the beach.
Another creative response to harassment came from 17-year-old student Catharia Doria. Doria created an app called Sai Pra Lá (Leave me Alone) which targets of harassment can use to record what they experienced (verbal comments, physical contact, whistling, etc.) and where it occurred. The app’s creator points out the lack of information on harassment until now: “Nobody ever really denounces harassment, it’s like it didn’t happen, so we can’t know how often it has occurred.” The result of her app’s data collection is a map of what harassment looks like, which should enable people to better combat the problem.
The app complements the Via Lilás project, which earlier this year installed interactive machines in 23 Rio train stations (including two Alemão cable car stations) to allow individuals to report sexual or domestic violence, assault, and harassment, among other gender-based crimes, facilitating data collection on incidents that otherwise often go unreported.
Also this month, women have taken to the streets in Rio, São Paulo and Brasília to protest a law proposed by Brazil’s Congressional president Eduardo Cunha, recently implicated in the federal corruption scandal, which would further restrict women’s rights to abortion. Currently, abortion is only legal in Brazil in cases when the mother’s life is at risk, the fetus has brain damage, or the pregnancy is a result of rape. Cunha’s bill, law 5069/13, would require a rape victim to prove she was raped in order to qualify for a legal abortion, through evidence of physical or psychological harm. Protesters argue providing evidence is not always possible and that methods of demanding evidence could be invasive. Many of the protesters would favor legalizing abortion as a woman’s choice, but if abortion must be restricted, they refuse to see additional limitations placed on women’s rights, demanding Cunha’s removal from office with the hashtag #ForaCunha (“get out, Cunha”). One 19-year-old student protester stated: “We’re here to prevent setbacks at [Cunha’s] hands.
Cunha is not the only politician facing backlash from women’s rights groups. Recent headlines that Rio mayoral candidate Pedro Paulo beat his ex-wife, Alexandra Mendes Marcondes, on two occasions in 2008 and 2010 led the former couple to hold a joint press conference. Marcondes admitted she had filed two police reports against her husband for physical violence, but still assured reporters he “is not an aggressive person.” She dismissed the media scrutiny by saying “all couples have fights.” Paulo added: “Who doesn’t lose control?…We were a couple like any other. Who doesn’t go through this?” These statements excuse domestic abuse by normalizing it, sending the twisted message that it’s okay because it’s commonplace. Although not as popular as #ForaCunha, #ForaPedroPaulo has also made its mark on social media and in protest signs and chants. Both these politicans were targets of slogans at Rio’s fifth annual SlutWalk on November 15, where a few hundred women protested violence, discrimination, and the notion that women’s clothing instigates sexual assault.
A feminist spring?
Together, the marches, the dat