Advertising Machismo: Misogyny as a Political Technology in the Age of the Borderline Male

1. Structural sexism is the name given to the order of discourses and actions of agents of patriarchy. The structural character of sexism is related to the dogmatic "naturalization" of the ideology and practice of sexist men. Like everything that is dogmatic, sexism relies on natural truths and treats its critics as "unnatural" monsters. 

2. Advertising sexism is the form of sexism in an era where politics is reduced to advertising. 

3. Several statements by Congressman Arthur do Val, recently involved in the case of harassment of Ukrainian women in a war situation, point to theatricality for publicity purposes in the eternal political campaign game of far-right agents. In 2018, Arthur do Val invaded an event wearing an outfit that imitated a vagina, harassing and intimidating students. Always using fallacies, the character's text, which can be seen on the internet, excels in grotesque discourse, namely, that which produces effects of power through its disqualification. 

4. To defend himself against being labeled a harasser and predator, the aforementioned congressman once again resorted to theatrics when faced with public and media outrage: in front of the cameras, he argued that being a “young” man and not a “saint” were natural characteristics that should be accepted by everyone. The fallacious argument about male nature emerges in an attempt to defend the indefensible: the aporophobic and predatory remarks against women in a vulnerable situation due to war. The crowds that criticized the congressman's stance were attacked by MBL agents as if they were going against the grain of natural machismo which, according to patriarchal dogma, should be accepted without complaint or criticism. This is what has been called “narrative construction,” and it depends on theatrics and performance. 

5. The importance of theatricality and the performance of political figures becomes increasingly evident when advertising takes the place of politics. In politics, there has always been a calculation regarding the perception, sensations, emotions, affections, and feelings of the masses. But since it has been relegated to advertising, all of this has become even more intense.

6. Fascism instrumentalizes the bad taste of an era and amplifies it for political ends. In this sense, fascism (whether Ur-Fascism or contemporary neo-Nazi fascism), more than an ideology, is a political technology that unites with another political technology: machismo, which is as old as it is. In simple terms, one could say that the two are intertwined. 

7. Two men tore down a street sign bearing Marielle Franco's name in 2018 in a hate ritual during the political campaign. This ritual certainly drew attention to them, and they were elected with many votes. Daniel Silveira, one of these deputies, continued his publicity strategy of using aggression and threats against everything and everyone, including the Supreme Federal Court (STF), and ended up being arrested. In prison, he changed his act: he began to cry to appear fragile. In the context of the pressure, softening the natural brutality of the male seemed the best way to modulate his image. 

8. The shift from the brutal male to the sensitive and fragile man allows us to introduce the category of the "borderline male" as a specific figure of theatricality in politics in the era of neo-Nazism and fascism. 

9. Fascism is entirely a performative charade characterized by its confrontation with democracy in a given era. 

10. In the usual male-dominated politics, men only needed to compete amongst themselves. When women emerge who threaten their positions, or threaten the image of another politician, men resort to violent action, which is part of their history and essential to the political performativity of the moment. Let us remember the force of misogyny against Dilma Rousseff and Manuela D'Ávila. The name of Marielle Franco continues to be used by Nazi-fascists as if it were a trophy announcing what they are capable of. 

11. The borderline male is the signature of a successful political design: he provides the image appropriate to power. Jair Bolsonaro defeated Fernando Haddad with the support of the coup-supporting corporate media, using an image of violence suited to the masses, who had no choice but to respond thanks to the excellent work of psychopower, or brainwashing, produced in a media advertising campaign that has been ongoing since 2013. This work of emotional brainwashing has been well-executed in Brazil since the advent of television and, more recently, with social media. The entire society lives peacefully under the advertising harassment promoted in this context. 

12. The defining characteristic of the borderline male is the misogynistic outburst that allows him to be in the spotlight. This is what Arthur do Val always did until he dropped the mask. 

13. The borderline male is the actor in a series of inherently misogynistic discourses and practices: he vociferates against women to draw attention to himself. Hysteria is, for him, a kind of method. In 2018, many brutes were elected using shouting tactics. Today, on social media, even the most unpopular men don't hold back when speaking out against women. Male hysteria is advancing like mass hysteria. 

14. Hysteria can be spontaneous, but for men seeking power, it has been instrumentalized for their ends. The question is "how to capitalize politically in the age of spectacle?" that is, how to appear at a time when women are prominent in the public sphere due to the feminist struggle. 

15. Feminists are attacked daily with all kinds of misogynistic discourse for not surrendering to male chauvinist dogma. They are heretics in the face of the patriarchal male cult in all environments, whether analog or virtual. But they are also used as leverage by polemicists full of hatred. 

16. The borderline male is terrifying and threatening. He represents the macho threat, itself a strategy that has been on the rise since Bolsonaro used the "gun" gesture during his 2018 campaign. The success of the threat had already been proven on April 17, 2016, when he used hate speech against Dilma Rousseff, praising her torturer and spreading fear throughout Brazil.

17. Machismo is the ideology that structures the patriarchal system. Ideology is a veil that conceals power relations. It is the obscuring of the truth of patriarchal power, which must remain unquestioned to remain intact. In this context, feminism, as a philosophy that unmasks ideology, is always in the crosshairs of the destruction of patriarchy. 

18. Machismo renews itself, advancing as a political technology of patriarchy. In the history of male political achievements, men have always eliminated women. Let us remember Olympe de Gouges, who in 1793 challenged machismo with her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen, since women, who had fought tremendously in the French Revolution, had been erased from the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. She ended up on the guillotine for not remaining silent. Now, in bourgeois democracy, which is, in fact, male chauvinist democracy, there is no real democracy. Today we speak of a radical democracy that can overcome the theoretical and practical limits of male chauvinist bourgeois democracy and, as such, false democracy. 

19. The struggle of women is a complex one: a class struggle, an anti-racist struggle, an environmental struggle, an anti-ableist struggle, a struggle for the right to exist, for equality, parity, and recognition. Women are a population majority, but to date they are a political minority because gender-based political violence is immense and deadly. 

20. The male political game is a narcissistic game, and its paradigm is masculinist homosexualism. Men understand each other and play amongst themselves. That is, they perform amongst themselves. In this scene, women are seen as intruders and undesirable. Gay men are accepted, as long as they do not manifest their gay pride, since this manifestation tends to undermine the veiling, the aspect of homosexuality that can only be exercised if it is hidden. It is a whole charade that will make the borderline male appear and calibrate his capital. The image of the heterosexual male is a political value, and in the context of extremism, it is the borderline male who roars and drools who appears to guarantee the maintenance of masculinist power.

21. Masculinity is in crisis in several spheres. For the priests of machismo, it is not enough to appear as the heterosexual male. The new value of the borderline male in the political market, reduced to advertising, will take time to overcome.