Bropriating: find out if you have a not-so-brother-brother

Bropriating is a very common phenomenon, especially in corporate or academic environments, although it is not a topic discussed often. Alongside mansplaing, it silences, emotionally attacks women, reproduces and propagates machismo. See below for more information on the subject.

Do you know what bropriating is?

The term bropriating was first mentioned in an article published by Jessica Bennett in Time magazine in 2015. Jessica defined the term as the act of “taking a woman’s idea and taking credit for it”. It is a portmanteau of “bro” (from brother, bro) and “appropriating” (appropriation). Factors such as machismo and sexism can contribute to the perpetuation of bropriating in society.

How does bropriating work?

As pointed out by the author, bropriating is the action of taking over a woman’s ideas, without giving her due credit. At first glance, it may seem absurd, something that would be very difficult to happen, but reality demonstrates the opposite. Many men use this practice to benefit in different ways and, thus, end up causing a female social erasure.

There are many forms of appropriation that, in addition to being disrespectful, represent violence against women. In other words, this act is wrong in any context, however, most of the time it involves a woman, appropriation receives the blessing of machismo, that is, it is minimized or despised.

A situation that very well illustrates bropriating is the case of influencer João Marques, who plagiarized a work of more than 25 years by psychologist and researcher Valeska Zanello. The irony of the story is that the work was about toxic masculinity. Someone forgot to do their homework.

Examples over time

As seen, bropriating is the male practice of appropriating ideas or initiatives developed by women. Historically, there have been several cases, however how to identify them? To stay alert, informed and credit the true owners of ideas, meet 7 women who have suffered bropriating:

• In 1968, Margaret Knight invented a machine that produced paper bags quickly and efficiently. However, when she went to patent the idea, what a big surprise! Chales Anan, who examined the machine in his shop, had patented the invention.
• Doctoral student Jocelyn Bell Burnell was the first person to observe radio pulses in 1967. She reported the discovery to her tutor Anthony Hewish, but was not credited. In 1974, he received a Nobel Prize for this discovery.
• Alice Guy was the first film director, making over 100 films in the early 1900’s. However, her name has been forgotten in the industry and her husband is credited for her work.
• Singer-songwriter Willie Mae Thornton was the first to perform the song “Hound Dog”. Later, the song was recorded by Elvis Presley without her consent. Willie tried for a long time to get credit for the song, but he only got some recognition in 1984, at the music museum “Blues Hall of Fame”.
• Lee Krasner was an important painter of the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 20th century. According to her, in her day, there were “the artists” and there were “the ladies”, she was considered the lady, Pollock’s wife. Her work was erased for a long time despite all the artistic quality.
• Margaret Keane was the true painter of the paintings signed by her husband, Walter Keane. He convinced her that they would make more money if people thought the pictures were painted by a man. After ten years, she declared the authorship of the paintings and said that Walter threatened to kill her if she revealed her secret.
• Elizabeth Magie was the inventor of the Monopoly game in the year 1903. However, 30 years later a man named Charles Darrow claimed the work and sold the game to Parkers Brothers. He made a lot of money from the project.

Over the years, there have been many smart and innovative women who have fallen victim to appropriation. However, it was only in 2015 that this practice was named. Bropriating is structured in society, starts in childhood, is propagated in adolescence, for example, when a girl does a school project and a boy takes the credits, until it becomes a very common habit in the professional and academic environment.

Why it’s important to fight bropriating in any situation

Look, if it was a man who said or did it, then it has value! This is well illustrated in the examples above. However, the value passes through the judgment of culture and historical time. Thus, the patriarchal system reinforces and, covertly, approves the erasure of women. In this sense, it is as if the idea that an intelligent woman is embedded in common sense is unacceptable and, more than that, it is unacceptable for a woman to have a superior position to a man, whether at work, in art or at home.

In other words, this is the famous “passing cloth”. Nobody likes to have their ideas stolen, but when the action comes from one man, society and history minimize the problem and the consequences. In addition to frustration, bropriating triggers emotional problems, low self-esteem, creative block, professional stagnation, reality distortion, devaluation of women in the job market, etc. Thus, it is essential to find ways to recognize and disrupt the practice, as well as to make other women aware.

Combat is an ant’s job: share information, talk to other women. If you’ve been through a situation like this and are comfortable talking about it, speak up. There is no longer room for a sexist job market, companies need to discuss gender equality. Universities need to take feminism out of theory and put it into practice. The culture needs a drastic stir.

So, woman, spread your ideas and occupy your space. For conscious resistance, it is necessary to understand the context and its in-between. So read the feminist glossary and learn about several other faces of machismo.