Misogyny in Political Imagery: Violence and Power in the Portraits of Dilma Rousseff

Abstract

Dilma Rousseff played a groundbreaking political role in Brazil, shattering gender barriers that had long hindered women's access to leadership roles in the government. Her significant involvement in the left's resistance against the military dictatorship in the 1960s led to her imprisonment and torture. Released in 1973, she continued her political activism, contributing to the reconstruction of the Brazilian left during the transition to democracy. This challenging political landscape triggered an unprecedented response: misogynistic discourses in political media coverage became more prevalent. In this context, considering the portrait as the "conversion of a phenomenological presence into another, imagined" (Beyaert-Geslin, p. 28, 2017), and acknowledging gender as ideal for establishing (inter)subjective affirmation and exposure strategies (Dondero, 2014), we aim to illustrate how misogynistic discursive operations in media discourse permeate framing strategies, enunciative projection, and actor construction in Dilma's media portraits.