Men Behaving Badly: Brazil Bill Puts Misogyny on a Par With Racism, Punishable With Fines and Jail Terms

A new law that would allow a judge to rule that men’s bad behavior is misogynistic and send them to jail is facing a vote in Brazil’s lower house after the Senate approved the legislation earlier this week.The Senate measure, voted unanimously Wednesday among the 67 present members, adds misogyny to the Racism Act, making it a hate crime eligible to fines and jail time between two-five years. The Chamber of Deputies will now decide whether to amend, pass, or kill the bill.While the legislation calls the offense a demonstration of “hatred or aversion to women,” what is considered “misogyny” would be left to a judge to decide, and could include something as simple as a slight during a debate or discussion. “A woman is there, expressing her opinion, and then—say, a male colleague—steps in and cuts her off mid-sentence. This behavior is deeply misogynistic,” Brazilian TV show host Renata Menezes said on her show Band Mulher, or Band of Women. “Indeed, I don’t know a single woman who hasn’t, at some point, felt interrupted. It’s not just a minor annoyance, it feels—well, almost like a violation. After all, our communication—the way we express ourselves in the world — is incredibly important. So, when someone, specifically a man, steps in and steals our voice, cutting us off, it constitutes an act of immense violence. That is misogyny,” she said.Argentina-based news outlet La Derecha Diario reports that until now, misogyny is penalized under defamation and injury statutes, with punishment being much milder. The lifting of the status of women into the Racism Act can be combined with factors such as race, color, religion, or origin to determine higher penalties for convictions.However, several legal scholars contending with what they concede is institutionalized discrimination against women are conflicted over the bill’s definition of misogyny and say courts will have wide discretion to decide if an action is misogynistic or merely sexist, the difference being whether an individual holds gender-based biases or deep-seated animosity or contempt toward women.“Misogyny is not limited to an individual manifestation of prejudice, but sustains and legitimizes violence against women. Equating its repression to that of crimes of racism is to recognize its seriousness and strengthen legal protection,” co-sponsor Senator Soraya Thronicke said after passage of the bill.The lack of a definition means enforcement could be politicized based on a judge’s perspective of a “hate” crime, eliciting calls from groups for stronger definitions to be built into the Chamber of Deputies’ final bill.According to Los Angeles-based Soul Brasil magazine, Brazil is the most violent Latin American nation against women. It points to 2024–2025 data showing that a woman is killed every one hour and 45 minutes, mostly in domestic violence situations. More than 7,000 cases of attempted femicide — or murder motivated by gender — occurred in 2025, according to Ms. Thronicke, who warned that hate speech is growing online and platforms need mechanisms to curb promoting violence against women. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed two laws strengthening protections for women last year, one that would provide new penalties for perpetrators who target women using artificial intelligence to alter their image or sound, which has been tied to a spike in stalking and psychological violence in Brazil. Another allows for better protective measures for women whose partners have been found guilty of domestic and family violence.Opponents of the current legislation said adding misogyny to the Racism Act goes too far and lawmakers could just increase fines for offenses against women from within the criminal code. They also raised concerns that the law could lead to censorship, particularly if someone can be brought to court for doing something as innocuous as interrupting a woman during a business meeting without carrying animosity toward her. Others warned that the law could impinge on freedom of expression, especially in academic, religious, or cultural spheres.

Men Behaving Badly: Brazil Bill Puts Misogyny on a Par With Racism, Punishable With Fines and Jail Terms

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