Lula calls women from the PT “hard-core”. Do you know what that means?

Amidst the audios of President Lula’s phone calls that were released last Wednesday, one in particular left the feminist internet in an uproar. In a conversation with former Minister of Human Rights Paulo Vannuchi, Lula defends that PT women have to speak out against Rondônia attorney Douglas Kirchner, who is investigating him. He says:

He beat the woman, took the woman to religious services, left her without eating, whipped her, you know? Where are the hardcore women from our party?

The story of Douglas Kirchner is really sinister: he is accused of watching and participating in physical punishments practiced against women in an evangelical church in Porto Velho, Rondônia. She would have been beaten with a vine and a belt, and would have been kept in private prison in the church’s accommodation, according to information from the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.

But what caused controversy was the use of the expression “hard-core woman”🇧🇷 A lot of people expressed themselves finding the expression foul and vulgar. Some vehicles claimed that the expression offends women and feminists. And some feminists defend the use of the expression.

“Grelo”, in the dictionary definition, is a name given to plant shoots. But, popularly, it is a nickname for the clitoris, the female sexual organ whose sole function is to provide pleasure to the woman. When the woman is excited, the clitoris erection happens – hence, “hard rap”🇧🇷

“I found the expression very funny”, says Carol Patrocínio, founder of Comum.vc, a community of female empowerment. “We spend our lives listening to things like ‘the guy is cool’, ‘slamming his dick on the table’, or that something cool ‘is awesome’. All these expressions speak of the male organ as something that gives value to things, something positive. The vagina, clitoris and vulva are totally forgotten”, she completes.

Talking about penises as a symbol of power is something so common that we don’t even notice it. “Man dominates woman and the phallus dominates speech, since time immemorial”, says José Eustáquio Diniz Alves, Professor at the National School of Statistical Sciences at IBGE, in an article about sexism in language published in 2004. “A dar com pau” means “in large quantities. “Tight skirt” means an uncomfortable situation. “Slamming your stick on the table” means imposing yourself. “Open your legs” means to give in, and so on.

Sexism in language does not help women, but, according to Professor José Eustáquio, the path is not to exchange one sexism for another, equating the stick on the table with the hard sprouts. In the article, the professor states that speech without sexist prejudice is a prerequisite for the existence of a society with gender equity. And, in a telephone interview, he reinforces: “I don’t think you should use the same prejudices in an inverted way. This is not how you have gender equality. We have to get over the vulgar language. The ‘take it in the ass’, for example. Some might see it in a positive light, but it reflects a sexist thing. ‘Putting it up to others’ is positive, ‘taking it up to others’ is negative. People do and say whatever they want. But ‘woman with hard skin’ reflects sexist and sexist language, against gender equality”, he says.

About the origin of the term, many say it would be a popular Northeastern expression. But, according to journalist Fred Navarro, who researched Northeastern expressions for 15 years and is the author of the “Dicionário do Nordeste” (Companhia Editora de Pernambuco), the word “grelo” is registered in dictionaries as of general use, and the expression “de grelo ” does not have a northeastern origin.

Professor Ana Lima, from the Department of Letters at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), claims to be unaware of the expression, and says that, at least in Recife, the state capital, it is not a popular expression. Professor Nelly Carvalho, also from UFPE, who has been studying structural and social aspects of the history of languages ​​for almost 60 years, is also unfamiliar with the expression “woman with a hard top”: “I’ve never seen it in my life. I research regional language, and I’ve never heard that, ”she says.

What President Lula said in his conversation with Paulo Vannuchi we could all hear. What he meant by that, only he knows. The interpretations are the most diverse. Expression of empowerment or just a vulgar or sexist term? Each one can choose what it means to be a hard-core woman. Is that you? What do you think?