Open AccessCritical analysis of the discourse on Judith Butler´s visit to the country in the most popular online news portals
Author(s) -
Katia Maria Belisário,
Kaitlynn Menders
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
mediaciones
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2590-8057
pISSN - 1692-5688
DOI - 10.26620/uniminuto.mediaciones.15.23.2019.91-106
Subject(s) - ideology , mainstream , witch , interpretation (philosophy) , sociology , feminism , construct (python library) , media studies , popular culture , critical discourse analysis , gender studies , discourse analysis , politics , political science , law , ecology , computer science , biology , programming language , linguistics , philosophy
In November 2017, feminist theorist Judith Butler travelled to Brazil to participate in an international conference. During the event, protesters gathered, carrying signs, chanting slogans, and burning an effigy of her while shouting, “Burn the witch!” According to media reports, these protesters wanted to preserve notions of the traditional nuclear family within Brazil and protect children against Butler’s “diabolical gender ideology”, which includes her theory that gender is a social construct and a cultural interpretation that overlaps with biological determinism. The protest attracted mainstream media attention. This article aims to identify the key discourses used by anti- and pro-Butler activists commenting in the most popular news portals in the country, UOL and G1. The questions guiding this study are: 1) How is feminism represented in Brazil? 2) How do protesters and counter-protesters understand and argue about “gender ideology”? The methodology used is the critical discourse analysis of online comments of readers of both portals.