A Brazilian state deputy put on blackface during a government proceeding in order to protest another member of the federal government.
Fabiana Bolsonaro, a state rep. of the São Paulo State Legislative Assembly, shocked attendees on Wednesday when she applied brown makeup not only to her face, but to her arms as well.
‘I want precisely to show that it’s useless to put on makeup.’
Now, lawmakers are now calling for the Liberal Party member’s removal and have filed an ethics complaint against her, according to Brazilian outlet Folha de S. Paulo.
However, Bolsonaro made it clear during her speech that her reason for putting the makeup on was to protest another member of government. Bolsonaro was protesting the appointment of Erika Hilton as chair of the Chamber of Deputies’ Women’s Rights Committee because Hilton — born Felipe Santos Silva — is a male who believes he is a woman.
Santos Silva is a federal deputy from Brazil’s Socialism and Liberty Party, which holds 14/513 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, equivalent to the U.S. House of Representatives.
During Bolsonaro’s speech, the politician explained she was protesting the idea that one can become a woman simply by declaring so.
“I, being a white person who has lived everything that I lived as a white person, now at 32 years old, decide to put on makeup, to dress myself up as a black person, applying makeup and making only the outside appear [black]. … Have I become black?” she asked, according to a translation.
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“Am I black now?” she continued.
Bolsonaro put emphasis on the fact that she could not possibly have experienced what it is like to be black in Brazil simply by putting on makeup.
“I want precisely to show that it’s useless to put on makeup. It’s useless to pretend something,” Bolsonaro added. “I say to you as a woman: I am a woman. It does no good to dress up as a woman. I am not offending any transsexual. Quite the contrary, I am saying that I am a woman.”
The liberal also called out the accolades that Hilton has acquired since posing as woman, saying, “The Woman of the Year cannot be a transsexual. … Someone took her place to put a transsexual there.”
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Photo by Mauricio Santana/Getty Images
Hilton has been named as Woman of the Year by Marie Claire Brasil, celebrated as a model for Sao Paulo Fashion Week, and given the label of having won the most votes of any woman in Brazil by British Vogue in 2020.
Bolsonaro remained respectful in her comments, however, saying that “transsexuals must be respected,” and claimed there is “an increase in the murder of transsexual people.”
She concluded, “I don’t want any trans person to go through prejudice, murder, or discrimination for being trans. But I also don’t want any trans to take my place.”
Bolsonaro, who is not related to former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, changed her name in 2022 ahead of elections in support of the president, GB News reported. Her former name was Fabiana Barroso. At the same time, she changed her racial classification from white to mixed-race, the outlet stated.
Since the remarks last week, Hilton has requested electoral authorities to investigate Bolsonaro’s change of racial identification, based on Brazilian regulations introduced in 2021 that increased public funding for candidates who are black or female.
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News, Brazil, Blackface, Transgender, Transgenderism, Transsexual, Liberal, Socialist, Politics