Being a 'terribly Christian Minister': populism, gender, and anti-feminism in Damares Alves's ministerial performance. Issue 4 (4th July 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Martinez, Monise
• Is Part Of: Identities. Volume 29:Issue 4(2022)
• Page Start: 500
• Page End: 517
• Publication Date: 2022-07-04
• Subjects: Anti-feminism -- gender -- neoconservatism -- populism -- Damares Alves -- Jair Bolsonaro; Ethnic groups -- Periodicals; Race relations -- Periodicals; Ethnic relations -- Periodicals; Ethnicity -- Periodicals; Group identity -- Periodicals; 301
• DOI: 10.1080/1070289X.2022.2037900
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1070-289X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Aiming to contribute to the debates on the entanglements among the far-right and anti-feminism Latin America, this article seeks to shed light on the performance of Damares Alves as Brazil's Minister of Women, Family and Human Rights. Regarding Alves's conservatism along her political career, particularly during the 2018 presidential run, this study provided an analysis on the reasons behind her prominence to the ongoing bolsonarism, and on how she contributed to building the gender knowledge that anchors the populist narrative in Bolsonaro's political project. Concerning anti-feminist project's foundations, as well as Alves's performance as a Christian-conservative woman, a set of her speeches in the first 19 months of her term was scrutinised, by adopting the FCDA as methodology and using the thematic analysis as a method. The pointing of Alves's discursive strategies revealed her attacks on feminisms, and the aim of legitimising herself and Bolsonaro's political project as pro-women.