Last Tuesday (24), it unanimously approved the , which equates misogyny with the crime of racism. The 67 senators present voted in favor, with no vote against. While the rapporteur recalled that in 2025 alone Brazil registered almost 7,000 victims of attempted feminicide, the author of the project, Ana Paula Lobato (PDT-MA), reported having suffered death and rape threats that she had received for defending the proposal. The rapporteur herself also reported having been the victim of threats after the approval of the . It is interesting to note that the project that seeks to curb hatred against women triggered a series of attacks on social media. The project now goes to the Chamber of Deputies.
According to data from , which analyzes more than 100,000 public Telegram groups in real time, the topic resonated on networks immediately after the vote. The day after approval, the volume of messages about the bill tripled compared to the day of the vote itself. The two days following approval together brought together almost 63% of all messages monitored on the topic in the period. The vote was the subject of intense debate, and the reaction, on the part of the right, was organized.
Among messages with identifiable positioning, the division was almost symmetrical, with around 48% against the project and 52% in favor. But the framings took place with different strategies. The critical narrative was anchored, dominantly, in the censorship argument. Along these lines, in around 65% of opposing messages the central concern was the supposed threat to freedom of expression. This argument gained greater prominence when he classified the proposal as an “aberration” and promised to overturn it in the Chamber. An adulterated version of the text even circulated on the networks, which was denied and deleted after repercussions.
The theme is also central in the literature on the “machosphere”, a term that refers to a set of communities in which men come together with the aim of protecting themselves from what they believe to be women’s structural privileges. A study by , published on the 24th, based on a mapping of 85 Brazilian masculinist communities on Telegram, identified that gender policies are systematically re-presented as “threats to men” or evidence of “feminist capture of the State”. The research analyzed more than 7 million pieces of content published between 2015 and 2025 and concludes that laws against women, especially, but not only, are the target of recurring attacks within these communities.
On the other hand, the narrative supporting the bill is organized around real violence. According to Palver data, around 10% of all monitored messages on the topic make simultaneous reference to and violence against women. Soraya Thronicke summarized part of the negative reaction, pointing out that the country hates the word “feminism” more than “feminicide”.
The unanimous approval in the Senate, bringing together left, right and center, is politically unusual. No senator voted against, including the pre-candidate for President, who has been trying to position himself in a moderate way, targeting voters more towards the center. The pragmatic strategy, even though it was understood by part of the supporters, was criticized by the more radical base, which treated him as a traitor. The PL still has a long way to go through the Chamber, and the main battle will certainly be in the attempt to prevent narratives from polarizing public opinion and, in this way, putting pressure on politicians not due to the rationality that the issue requires, but due to ideological issues, mainly because it is an election year.
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