Seventeenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Brazil has always been dominated by men. This reflects in all spheres of the society. Women tend to receive lower salaries than men do for the same job. Many women suffer physical and symbolic violence from men. And women are just invisible in most uses made of the Portuguese language, which is accused of being sexist. Therefore, the objectives of this paper are to demonstrate that this language is not sexist and to pinpoint the exact social locus of this prejudice and its influence on the users of Portuguese. Examples will be presented to support this demonstration and alternative linguistic uses will be suggested as a form of resisting the male supremacy and, thus, of making the feminine gender visible in the Portuguese language.