Cyberspace as Denunciation: Harassment and Discrimination Linked to Coloniality in the Project Brasileiras Não Se Calam

Abstract

The stereotype of the Latin woman is commonly associated with sexuality. Brazilians seem to be particularly burdened by this stigma among Latin women worldwide. As immigrants, intersected by other matrices of oppression in addition to those of gender and race, for example, these women bear various marks remaining from Eurocentric coloniality that belittles and silences them (Mignolo, 2000/2003), a circumstance that is aggravated when the country of emigration is their coloniser. This article explores resorting to cyberspace as a forum for denunciation and feminist activism through a case study of the profile @brasileirasnaosecalam based on content analysis. The project appeared on the digital social network Instagram to anonymously report the harassment, discrimination and prejudice that Brazilian immigrant women suffer in Portugal, specifically for carrying their own nationality. Thus, through cyberactivism, which is also feminist activism, women are now experiencing a new cycle of political opportunities driven by the building and consolidation of ties among them around the globe, breaking down binarisms, including those between the first and the third world, in an appeal to cross-border articulation (Timeto, 2019). That shows the relevance of pursuing an ontological vision underpinned by a decolonial and intersectional feminist perspective that uses cyberfeminism as an ally to interconnect the digital and the real space.