Last week, I needed to buy a broom. I went with my husband to one of those street markets in London that sell a variety of products. When we arrived at the checkout, the attendant, who didn’t seem to be English, asked him: “It was your wife who told you to buy it, right?” Surprised and indignant, I looked at the man and asked, “Why are you saying that?” My husband quickly paid and took me out of the store, trying to make sure I didn’t ruin my Sunday. In vain. I spent hours upset at having been the target of a gratuitous sexist attack from a stranger, who associated a broom with a “female” object, something inferior in his view.
My husband, sympathetically, agreed that the narrow-minded, outdated guy was completely clueless. For me, it was yet another sexist episode that we women often put up with. Maybe the man thought it was a joke? Very similar to what happened in Brazil, in Neymar’s speech about the referee “being chico”.
In the last few days, I have seen and read analyzes about the case. I found it unbelievable to see men thinking they had the right to give their opinion, saying it wasn’t a big deal, and women, including a former journalist, calling those who were upset unloved.
I was reluctant to write about the topic. The exaggeration of topics related to Neymar has made me lazy. And, as the Baron of Itararé said, where you least expect it, nothing comes of it. Thinking that the player will change would be like believing that Trump would do the same. Hours ago, a video of Neymar was published on YouTube in which a friend tells him the obvious. At no point did he apologize, say he wouldn’t do it again — see, saying he didn’t mean to offend women is not the same as being sorry or understanding what happened.
But this column is not about Neymar. It’s about how this is another opportunity that sport gives us to learn that this type of speech — as well as racist or anti-homosexual speech — is unacceptable.
Like many, I also didn’t know that the expression “de chico” comes from pigsty, something that associates menstruation with something dirty. And that’s not the point. It is not necessary to know the origin of the term to admit that it is wrong to use a characteristic of women as a way to diminish ourselves, or a man.
As if we, for something so normal, were inferior. It’s like “having PMS” or “that’s a girl thing”. It is no joke and cannot be normalized, because, in less serious situations, it excludes women from sporting and social environments. In extreme cases, it turns into physical violence and feminicide.
The positive side is that this sexist speech made many men reflect, listen to women and take a stand in our favor. But what frustrated me the most is seeing how there is still so much difficulty in even recognizing that saying something stupid like that is a problem. It saddens me to think that part of Brazil is so stuck in time that it is still debating, in 2026, whether this is wrong. It is impossible to evolve as a society if we continue making excuses, calling them mimimi (the shallowest word, impossible), diminishing women’s feelings when this happens.
In fact, it is only because we have reproductive organs and menstruate that we have the power to generate lives. Without this, none of us, not even the most sexist, would be here.
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