In São Paulo, funk singer MC Reaça, who composed misogynistic jingles for Bolsonaro’s presidential campaign, attempts to beat pregnant girlfriend to death then kills himself. Cynara Menezes writes that, to Bolsonaro and his minions, MC Reaça represented an ideal image of masculinity.
By Cynara Menezes
Nazi leader Adolf Hitler had a masculine ideal of the “aryan”: white, heterosexual with no non-white ancestry – a German of “pure” race. Bolsonarism also has its ideal “aryan”: the macho and sadistic misogynist whose image is represented in two people who far right President Jair Bolsonaro paid public tribute to, Colonel Brilhante Ustra and MC Reaça.
Tales Volpi Fernandes, better known as MC Reaça, 25, killed himself last weekend in Valinhos, São Paulo, after attempting feminicide against his pregnant girlfriend, who he had outside of his marriage. The woman is now in intensive care in Idaiatuba with swelling on her face and eye and a broken jaw and will undergo surgery soon. On the social media, the President expressed his sympathy. To Bolsonaro, MC Reaça was “talented” and “dreamed of a better country”. There wasn’t a word about the beaten woman.
President Bolsonaro tweeted “Tais Volpi, better known as MC Reaça, left us yesterday. He had the dream of changing the country and bet on my name, through his great talent. He will be remembered for his talent, his humility, and for his love for Brazil. May God comfort him, together with his family and friends.”
Other followers of Bolsonarism, both male and female, also paid tribute to the “Marvelous young man.”
Congresswoman and Lava Jato Judge/Prosecutor Sergio Móro’s biographer Joice Hasselman said, “We lost a young man, a teacher, a musician, an activist. MC Reaça has left a void. May God comfort Tales’ family.
President Bolsonaro’s son, Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, tweeted, “what remains is the image of a happy guy, a worker, who was creative and a good guy. Your work produced results. Go with God MC Reaça!”
In their defense, it is possible that they did not know all of the details of MC Reaça’s death when they tweeted out their tributes. That would be a reasonable excuse if the fame of the “composer” among Bolsonaro and his supporters did not come through extremely misogynist lyrics in songs about Bolsonaro like this one, which he called leftist women and feminists “bitches who eat dog food from a bowl”.
“Give the CUT (Union Federation) their bread and bologna
Give the feminists their dog food
The girls from the right are the prettiest
while the girls on the left are hairier than dogs”
It is undeniable that this is the type of man that Bolsonarism admires. After all, the President could also not deny that he knew about the past of Colonel Brilhante Ustra, the sadistic army officer who tortured women during the military dictatorship, who he publicly dedicated his impeachment vote against Dilma Rousseff to in 2016. Ustra was accused of torturing pregnant women (any resemblance to MC Reaça?) and of giving electric shock to the vaginas of leftist women prisoners.
Then Congressman Jair Bolsonaro dedicated his impeachment vote to his great idol, the torturer of women, saying, “in memory of Colonel Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, the terror of Dilma Rousseff.”
Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo has walked around the halls of Congress in a t-shirt honoring the Colonel. It is clear that a sadistic torturer is an inspiration and model of masculinity for the entire family. Soon, they will appear wearing MC Reaça T-shirts.
It is no coincidence that the same Bolsonaristas who are paying tribute to MC Reaça constantly attack the memory of an assassinated woman, Marielle Franco.
In the social media, the Bolsonaro’s minions make fun of Marielle on a daily basis – she who they falsely accused of being connected to the drug trafficking gangs – while they simultaneously defend and pay tribute to murderers and torturers of women. The ideal man for Bolsonarism, like Ustra and MC Reaça, is a potential perpetrator of feminicide with a touch of sadism. The ideial Bolsonarist man is always ready to beat or torture a woman who don’t submit to him, like Dilma Rousseff or MC Reaça’s girlfriend.
This article was translated by Brian Mier and can be seen in its original form here
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