Feminine but not feminist: dispute of meaning in right-wing female parlamentarians discourse

Abstract

This article, developed in the light of the materialist discourse analysis, in interface with the anti-capitalist feminist theory, has as its object of analysis the discourse of female parliamentarians who are part of the Social Liberal Party in Brazil, specifically the statements of three of them: Janaína Paschoal, Joice Hasselmann and Soraya Thronicke. My aim is to reflect on the ways of saying about women by women subject to capitalism, as well as to give visibility to the divisions and displacements in the meaning of the word woman in the discourse of right-wing women who occupy positions in public governance. The analyses show that the discourse of these congresswomen signifies women in society by an effect of opposition between feminine women and feminist women. This effect is inscribed in an affiliation of meaning produced from a conservative and neoliberal subject-position inscribed in the interdiscourse.