Defending Feminism Through Intersectionality: Feminist Strategies Amid Right-Wing Movements in Brazil

• In Event: 50451 - Right-Wing Misappropriations of Feminism

Abstract

In this article, I explore how intersectionality has evolved from a critique of feminist-inspired legal reforms to a tool for defending these reforms from co-optation by right-wing political agendas. I analyze feminist responses to the aftermath of Brazil’s Feminicídio Law, which criminalizes the killing of women due to gender-based motives. Drawing on 40 in-depth interviews with activists, feminist materials on the topic, and participant observations at feminist events, I examine how activists seek to defend the law and its related policies from right-wing misappropriations. I build on Jennifer Nash’s theorization of women and gender studies after intersectionality (2019) to show how activists have repurposed a concept initially used to critique feminist legal reforms into a strategic tool to defend feminist legal gains. While activists continue to use intersectionality to challenge the law’s limited implementation, they also deploy it to justify their evolving strategies for safeguarding the legal reform and preventing right-wing actors from co-opting its language and intent. Feminist strategies highlight the influence of Black feminism in a country historically shaped by the myth of racial democracy and reveal the paradox of intersectionality functioning as both a critique and a defense of the Feminicídio Law within feminist movements. These findings contribute to scholarship on feminist mobilizations amid right-wing movements and intersectionality’s evolving role in activism.

Author

• Roberta S Pamplona, Mount Royal University