Somos todas vadias?: igualdade, diferença e política feminista a partir da Marcha das Vadias do Rio de Janeiro.

Abstract

This study takes as its object the Rio de Janeiro Slutwalk, a feminist movement which, anchored in the paradigm of sexual and reproductive rights, articulates the fight against gender violence to demands relating to women's autonomy with regard to sexuality and to the defense of sexual diversity. The focus is on the controversies surrounding this movement, from the finding that slutwalks value plurality and diversity, but are confronted by criticism centered on the claim of specific identities based on differences. Over 2014 we held participant observation of meetings and events organized by the Rio de Janeiro Slutwalk activists, later complemented by semi-structured interviews. We sought to understand how the specifics of this political act as an activist modality influence the way that equality / difference and identity politics are thought. A question pervades the entire dissertation: what is the possibility of alliances among women, in view of the differences and inequalities between them? The analyzes indicate that black women and women from poor communities characterize Slutwalk as an "elitist and white" feminism, questioning the liberating dimension attributed to the term "slut." Despite the commitment of activists with democratic principles - summarized in the ideal of "horizontality" - the interactions were marked by allegations of hierarchies, in which race and generations markers were central. Finally, the meanings attributed to the victim/aggressor figures, which in the internal dynamics unfolded into oppressor/oppressed, point to possibilities and limits of political strategies in which the vulnerability is not associated with lack of agency.