Brazil has 513 federal deputies. Among them, only 15% are women. If we talk about the mayor’s office, then women are ahead of 12%. And things are going well. These numbers can even be considered “good”. This is because women were the most elected in the last elections.

Being a woman and doing politics in Brazil is hell. The victim at the moment is Tabata Amaral, the youngest MP in Brazil, who is usually considered a “stupid girl,” a stupid girl, fragile. Over the weekend, the masculinity against her went even further. “If I found Tabata Amaral on the street, I would hit,” the stranger said on Twitter. The threat was retweeted by actor Ze de Abreu, who has over 500,000 subscribers.

In the entire history of Brazil, we have only had one female president. And she suffered an impeachment (or a coup, as many, including myself, prefer to call it). Before that, she was called a cow, a slut cursed all over the football stadium at the opening of the 2014 World Cup.

You don’t have to agree politically with Tabata to deny that a woman in politics is being threatened with blows. It’s tragic how many men (and women too, many of those who cursed Dilma Rousseff, for example, were women) use foul language, threats, and other expressions of hatred when the person you disagree with in politics is a woman.

Prejudice and sexism affect women of every political spectrum. Deputy Joyce Hasselmann is called Peppa Pig by former Pocket Narist allies, Manuela D’Avil is threatened, and even her daughter Laura, 5, Glazy Hoffmann, president of PT, is called “Lula’s artificial member” and so on.

All of these threats and attacks are unjustified and sexist in nature. Why aren’t men treated the same way?

And, of course, talking about “hitting” a woman is very serious, because women are victims of physical violence on an unacceptable scale. According to a Datafolha survey, about 17 million women in Brazil suffered physical, psychological or sexual abuse in 2020.

Party with a boyfriend?

Machism manifests itself in more subtle ways. Last week, columnist and professor Thiago Amparo noted that the following title was posted here in UOL: “MP Tabata Amaral announces joining SOV, the same party as her boyfriend.” “I don’t know why it became news, as if she was his accomplice. Does anyone have an example of a story in which a male politician is treated like this? “

Tabata, for those who don’t know, meets with João Campus, Mayor of Recife. But one thing has nothing to do with the other. She is a new and important name in politics, she had disagreements at the PDT, and she has changed. That happens. And no, she’s not João Campus’s girlfriend. She is a significant woman on the political scene with an expressive voice, and many parties would like to have in their ranks.

All representatives of all layers of the political scene should think about criticism of women politicians. I am not saying that they cannot and cannot be criticized (even harshly!), But it is worth thinking: “Would I do the same with a man? Am I not sexist? ” Brazilian democracy would be grateful.