Misogyny and omission: communication as a setback tool.

What future does a country have in which villainy distorts reality, building false narratives in the service of maintaining spurious interests of specific groups?

How is it possible that authors of any type of communication that exposes and offends people, tarnishing or compromising their reputations, can go unpunished?

Where is justice? And when this fake communication machine uses misogynistic refinements with a clear political motivation?

Before continuing this conversation, it is worth clarifying some concepts: misogyny is a term used to define feelings of hating women, or the belief that men are much better than women. The word comes from the Greek "miseo" - hate and "gyne" - women.

Misogyny and sexism are two interconnected concepts that, unfortunately, continue to support violence against women here in Brazil.

Misogyny is a pathological feeling of aversion towards the feminine, translated into sexist behaviors, opinions and attitudes that aim to maintain inequalities and hierarchy between genders, feeding the belief in the superiority of power and the male figure.

Sexism is the set of discriminatory attitudes and sexual objectification, based on stereotypes, to establish a social role that each gender "should" play.

Although we have advanced a lot in the last 50 years in the fight against misogyny and sexism here in Brazil, every now and then we are faced with disgusting public episodes that smell of mothballs and sulfur, such is the setback and violence they portray from our current moment.

Sexism engagement with misogynistic effect

Our February began with one of these sad and grotesque episodes: an anonymous, mocking and offensive video, constructed from out-of-context speeches of women that work at the company responsible for the project of S?o Paulo′s subway line 6 was criminally viral on social networks to make us believe that the accident at the construction site was responsibility and result of the incompetence of these women.

In addition to that, this beginning of March we had a new outrageous, sordid, misogynistic and inhumane episode: S?o Paulo State Deputy Arthur do Val, elected by 478,280 people and pre-candidate for the government of S?o Paulo, decided to travel to Ukraine (with political campaign purposes) and, while there, he sent an audio message to his friends in which he explicitly objectifies Ukrainian women who are seeking refuge in the middle of the war, and claims, among other absurdities, that "they are easy because they are poor".

For God′s sake, this audio message became viral and soon this creature will loose his mandate.

But we all know that he represents the thinking and practice of a large portion of Brazilian men.

Episodes like these should inspire indignation and collective mobilization. And why don't they inspire? Why is the overwhelming majority of expressions of rejection and support coming from women?

Where are the leading men who don't take a stand? Why don't they use their place of power and influence to show solidarity and repudiation of such a criminal act?

Where is the speech, in practice? What explains the omission and deafening silence of countless business leaders who say they are anti-sexist, inclusive and promoters of gender equality?

Why do they remain silent, keeping themselves alienated from reality? Where is the empathy and respect for diversity that they talk so much about? And if one of these violently offended women were their mother, wife, daughter, daughter-in-law, niece, goddaughter, would they engage in this fair cause?

As Martin Luther King said, “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people."

I am?Neivia Justa, awarded and recognized Brazilian businesswoman, mother of?Luiza?and?Julia, two teenager girls, jornalist, entrepreneur, influencer, teacher, mentor, consultant and?connector of purposeful leaders who think, communicate and act in a conscious, diverse, inclusive and innovative way to guarantee a sustainable future for all.

Article originally published in Portuguese on https://www.revistahsm.com.br/post/misoginia-e-omissao-a-comunicacao-como-ferramenta-de-retrocesso