How Bolsonaro’s Gendered Populist Performance Polarized Brazil

How Bolsonaro’s Gendered Populist Performance Polarized Brazil

Published on 26 April 2025

This article is part of a special series in collaboration with the Review of Democracy, which was initiated following the organisation of our 8th annual workshop Populism, Anti-Populism, Polarisation that took place at the CEU Democracy Institute.

Antonio Athayde Sauandaj
Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

In Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro leveraged gender performance to craft and sustain an outsider persona, despite his long-standing tenure in parliament and his role as head of the executive. This performative act, however, had dire consequences. It intensified political polarization and turned intimate spheres shaped by gender relations into battlegrounds of ideological conflict, especially during the 2022 electoral campaign.

Gender issues have long been central to national political debates and widely politicized by populist movements worldwide, especially since the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action, which aimed to advance gender equality within the United Nations. Opposition to this agenda, initially led by the Vatican, quickly gained traction among various conservative groups, especially Catholic and evangelical organizations. Sociologist Stanley Cohen’s notion of “moral panic” aptly captures how this backlash took root, morphing into a transnational force that had appropriated and adapted its strategies to different national contexts. For instance, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has invoked gender issues to lamentdeclining birth rates and the erosion of Christian civilization. Similarly, Giorgia Meloni and her party, Brothers of Italy, have touted family-centered policies as a solution to the country’s demographic decline.

Throughout his career, Bolsonaro did not merely discuss gender issues; he embodied them, crafting a political persona centered on hyper-masculine performance as a strategic identity. Despite serving as a member of parliament since 1991 and occupying the presidency from 2019 to 2022, he cultivated the image of an outsider, taking on the establishment. His ascent, of course, owes much to Brazil’s broader political crisis following Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment and the high-profile Car Wash corruption investigation, which implicated Petrobras and key left-wing leaders. However, this piece zeroes in on gender as a key element of his populist politics.

My field research during the 2022 presidential election shows that Bolsonaro’s gendered performance acted as a form of “translation operation”: it converted abstract political divisions into everyday debates about family, morality, and religion. This strategy was effective because it rendered complex issues more tangible, using personal and moral language to foster a sense of ideological allegiance.

Gender and Populist Political Performance

Populist strategy, as theorized by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, relies on the construction of collective identities through political division, emphasizing the role of discourse in shaping perceptions and mobilizing support. Within this framework, the performative approach emphasizes how populist leaders use political communication to redefine what is considered appropriate in the public sphere. Scholar Théo Aiolfi captures this well by describing populism as a “transgressive style,” a mode of leadership that challenges behavioral norms within institutions. Unlike traditional politicians who conform to the decorum of the office, populist figures adopt a contrasting strategy by contesting the status quo through their performance. Gender, in this context, plays a crucial role, transcending ideological appeal and serving as a powerful tool for political communication.

In Brazil, Bolsonaro embodied this approach through archetypal displays of hegemonic masculinity, positioning himself as a defender of the “ordinary men” allegedly under siege by feminists, the left, and progressive elites. This persona resonated with a deeply rooted cultural “common sense,” allowing him to preserve an outsider image—even while sitting at the very center of power as president. According to a study conducted by UOL Esportes, Bolsonaro made at least 81 public appearances in sports jerseys from various clubs during his presidency between 2018 and 2020. He hosted motorcycle rallies and posed with MMA fighters, turning his body into a performance of strength and defiance. During his 2022 campaign, this gendered performance escalated: he mocked feminist ideals, taunted female journalists, and equated physical vigor with political authority. For instance, he falsely alleged that journalist Patrícia Campos Mello had offered sex in exchange for a scoop. At another moment, he suggested that journalist Vera Magalhães would “sleep thinking of him.” Later, at the official celebration of Brazil’s Independence Bicentenary, he boasted of having “no erection problems.” In a memorable moment during a televised debate, he turned to his opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, with a jab about using Viagra. These provocations weren’t slips; they were calculated performances that reinforced Bolsonaro’s identity as a rule-breaker taking on the political establishment.

More importantly, this strategy cemented his bond with his most radical supporters, offering a symbolic shorthand for his anti-elite, anti-progressive ethos. However, it also came at a cost. The same hyper-masculine bravado that energized his base increasingly alienated moderate voters, deepening the climate of polarization that fractured Brazilian society.

The Polarizing Effect of Gender Politicization

Brazil’s 2022 presidential election starkly exposed the country’s deep political divide. Even before the first round of voting, the race was destined to be a showdown between two towering characters: Bolsonaro, representing the Liberal Party, and Lula, the Workers’ Party candidate. Together, they commended over 75% of voting intentions, making the election the most polarized since Brazil’s return to democracy in 1986. The divide grew so sharp that it attracted widespread media attention. In September, BBC News Brazil launched a podcast titled Broken Brazil, documenting how political polarization was disrupting everyday life. The first episode spotlighted couples seeking therapy to mediate their political differences, as well as families turning to counselors to cope with the stress of opposing views in the lead-up to the election.

Ethnographic observations and interviews I conducted during the electoral campaign also confirmed the personal toll of this polarization. Eliane Mariotto, a 29-year-old lab technician from Curitiba, recounted how her boss’s sexist behavior and outspoken support for Bolsonaro created a toxic work environment. She described the atmosphere in the lab as “rotten,” with politics permeating daily conversations and straining personal relationships during Bolsonaro’s presidency.

Matheus Lucas, a 28-year-old psychologist from Curitiba, reflected on the ideological divide within his family. Raised in a center-right household, he initially supported the Brazilian Social Democratic Party. However, after entering university, his left-wing views put him at odds with his father, a staunch Bolsonaro supporter. Matheus described tense family discussions, particularly after he shared a post criticizing Bolsonaro’s misogynistic behavior toward journalist Vera Magalhães: “My father was furious; he said I was repeating nonsense without thinking and that he hadn’t raised a son to be a feminist.” (Interview, Curitiba, 28 October 2022).

This story underscores the intense polarization within Brazilian families, where political disagreements are not only ideological but deeply personal. It also highlights how gender issues, especially in the context of Bolsonaro’s politics, have become a central point of contention. The politicization of gender under Bolsonaro has created sharp divides, turning personal convictions about feminism into ideological battlegrounds, thereby amplifying both polarization and the cultural wars surrounding gender in contemporary politics.

Gender as a Key Political Tool

The piece hasn’t aimed to debate whether Jair Bolsonaro is genuinely sexist or not. The more revealing question is how his gender performance allowed him to legitimize his populist appeal. By projecting a hyper-masculine political identity, Bolsonaro strove to maintain the illusion of being an outsider while exacerbating polarization within Brazilian society. His political enterprise aptly illustrated how gender can be wielded as a powerful tool in populist communication, transforming social relations into ideological battlegrounds.

And while Bolsonaro may have lost the 2022 election, the politics of masculinity he championed is far from gone. The rise of masculinist politicians such as Nikolas Ferreira, Lucas Pavanato, and Pablo Marçal—each echoing elements of the former president’s style—shows that gendered performance remains a potent force on the Brazilian political stage. In fact, the gender politics Bolsonaro ignited have become a fixture of the Brazilian political landscape, poised to shape future elections and further entrench the cultural divides that continue to fuel his legacy.

Antonio Athayde Sauandaj is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and a Research Associate at the European Center for Sociology and Political Science. His research focuses on political institutions in Brazil, conservative mobilization, and gender issues. His dissertation examines the political communication strategy of Jair Bolsonaro, focusing on how the former president used masculinist discourses, images, and symbols to broaden his electoral base and legitimize his illiberal turn.