The mobilization against feminicide filled Avenida Paulista this Sunday (7), in a great event with the participation of thousands of women and men. In banners and speeches, the uprising called for an end to violence against women, with stronger penalties for crimes motivated by misogyny and combating hate speech.
The act brought into discussion structural issues that reinforce and maintain gender-based violence. Among the themes were legislation, freedom and respect.
“I came today because I think it is very important to make visible the issue of how much misogyny hurts a woman’s right to exist, our truth to live. I think it all starts there. It is everything that hurts a woman’s freedom,” said professor Jessica Torres, 39 years old.
For her, there is no age at which you should talk about the subject with children. She works on the topic as part of the content since early childhood education, since from the beginning, little ones repeat family behaviors, including discriminatory ones.
“That’s why it’s important that teachers approach it with books, activities, with affection and care, demonstrating what misogynistic attitudes are. It’s something that can be light, you know? We’re not here to be aggressive, we just want to be able to be free, you know? We’re going to be great”, he adds.
The pedagogue, Fernanda Prince, 34 years old, works with children aged 6 to 8. She finds it very easy and very interesting to work on the topic with this audience.
“They understand very easily. Of course, there will always be one family or another that may look at this in a bad light, but it is essential to work on this issue of feminicide, of violence against women from a young age. And [esse tema] It’s in everything, for example, in toys, this thing about girl’s toys, boy’s toys, girl’s color, boy’s color, all of this that seems very naive, in fact the seeds are there. Both for good and for bad”, explains the teacher, who went to the mobilization this Sunday because she was already exhausted. “I think there is no way to not come to the streets”, she says, given the number of femicides and the ease with which sexist agendas and influencers express their hatred on social networks and electronic communication.
Maria das Graças Xavier, 58 years old, organized participation in the protest by a group of women and men who work in the housing movement in the southeast region of the capital of São Paulo. According to her, the articulation was quick and powerful.
“So, we realize that it is structural machismo, and we need to put an end to it, we have to break with the patriarchy. This act was a call from women, made in less than 10 days, nationally, in all states. I’m here in São Paulo, but there were events in Pernambuco, Bahia, Minas, in several states”, highlights the activist.
Graça, as she prefers to be called, considers the discussion of the role of the State in the construction of campaigns and public policies to combat violence urgent. For her, those who live on the outskirts constantly see injured women and see or know about deaths caused because men do not accept equality or women do not submit to them.
Severe laws
During the demonstrations, participants carried hundreds of posters calling for strict laws against femicide.
“There is a culture of oppression of women, an ancient culture. And there are many women dying because of this, dying little by little with psychological terrorism, dying due to lack of space in society, at home, at work. And we really need to talk about this”, says trader Lilian Lupino, 47 years old. “Men feel protected due to the lack of harsh punishment laws.
See photos of the demonstration in São Paulo:
