Gender and humor in social networks: the campaign against Dilma Rousseff in Brazil

Abstract

This article has as an analytical corpus a set of 69 memes opposed to Dilma Rousseff that viralized in the Brazilian web between the period of June 2014 and August 2016 and investigates the contents mobilized during the public campaign in favor of the parliamentary coup occurred in Brazil in 2016. The analysis of these productions, as tools in the political disputes that culminated in the coup, is a way of interpreting the contemporary dynamics of Brazilian politics and the very place given to the figure of women and the feminine in public space. The collected memes show that comedy is built largely on gender inequalities and by not problematizing such an underlying framework we reinforce it. As an analytical strategy, we propose the classification of memes into four interpretive keys inspired by feminist political theory: (1) Depersonalization or invisibility, (2) Humiliation or ridicule, (3) Objectification or sexualization, and (4) Aggression or violence. By identifying the devices that support comedy from shared discursive parameters, the research demonstrates how the generalized dimension of political humor has mobilized sexist and misogynist stereotypes that have not only struck Dilma Rousseff but have reinforced the very symbolic place of women in national politics.

Dilma Rousseff; gender; humor; social networks; political representation