Voices in confrontation: the polemics surrounding the Femicide Law

Abstract

Among the achievements of the struggle to end violence against women in Brazil are the Maria da Penha Law (August 7, 2006) and the Law on Femicide (March 9, 2015), which we discuss in this article. The crimes considered “femicides”, in general, are those committed against women just because they are women. With the promulgation of the law, the term –femicide–, previously used in scientific articles, gains notoriety and becomes part of Brazilians’ vocabulary, provoking a public polemic around the validity of the law and integrating itself to the set of political and cultural polemics that divides contemporary societies. The vision of jurists, members of social movements, feminist critics, religious and politicians appears diluted in the position of ordinary citizens in the conversations of daily life and, especially, in today's social networks. And it is precisely for the twitter social network that our gaze is turned at this moment, when we come across a polemical interaction widely disseminated on the internet, which refers to an established exchange between a well-known and renowned Brazilian journalist and his followers.