International Women’s Day: ideological and argumentative aspects of Bolsonaro’s speech in his first year at presidency

Abstract

The discourse is the materialization of the individual's positioning, it is built from his interpellation by several ideologies in a certain socio-historical moment. The political discourse, in specific, enables the enunciator to use different scenographies (MAINGUENEAU, 2005) in order to talk to the audience. Therefore, through literature review, this paper aims to analyze argumentative and ideological aspects in Bolsonaro’s speech in the celebration of 2019 International Women’s Day, in order to discuss the ideology underlying his positionings, as well as the role of lexical selection in the spread of this ideology. The analysis showed that the president’s positioning is based on Christian values which mean that a woman’s fundamental role is to help the man and to raise their home. In this sense, lexical selection is settled as a tool that materialize positionings originated in this ideology, which break any neutrality assumed in the discourse. The words were used in a valuative sense, aiming to enhance the woman’s role as a helper both in society and family. Lexical selection, as a whole, was used in order to decrease formality and, consequently, approach the speaker and his audience.