Scaling and indexing sexual anxiety in the Brazilian contemporary extreme right

A projeção escalar e a indexicalização da ansiedade sexual na extrema direita brasileira contemporânea

Abstract

In this article, we discuss the contemporary phenomenon of the extreme right and argue that it involves the friction between the chronotopes of Colonial Modernity and those of the libertarian forces from the 1960s and 1970s. We also emphasize that this phenomenon can also be understood as social fascism. This chronotopic confrontation, which centrally includes social networks and voracious capitalism, is the effect of biopower and the tactical productivity of discourses on sexuality. In particular, we focus on how this friction strategically operated in the Discourses of former president Bolsonaro, producing sexual anxiety, fear and insecurity. The analysis is based on the constructs of sociolinguistic scale and indexicality. We examined re-entextualizations of the then-president's Discourses on social media, which uniquely in the international extreme right focused on ‘scandalous’ sexual acts, his penis, and his sexual performance. In conclusion, we emphasize: a) the need to pay attention to micro-political aspects of subjectivity that make macro-politics operational; and b) the relevance of an epistemology that involves political activism, such as the semiotic studies undertaken here, in order to open up space for another future.

Keywords:
chronotopes ; social fascism ; Bolsonaro ; scale ; indexicality