Carving out our spaces: Experiences of Black Brazilian women resisting technology-facilitated gender-based violence
This research explores the impacts of TFGBV on the experiences of Black Brazilian women, as well as documenting how we/they have been resisting, creating connections with each other and finding joy in spite of the hostility of online environments.
This report focuses on tech-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) and misogynoir against Black Brazilian women. Based on research conducted by Instituto Minas Programam between April 2024 and March 2025, the findings expose some of the ways mainstream digital technologies are embedded with racism, sexism and misogynoir and show how Black Brazilian women have been carving out their/our own online spaces, building strategies for resistance, connection and possibility.
This report aims to expand our understanding of how TFGBV impacts Black Brazilian women. The findings presented are based on qualitative research focusing on the experiences of Black Brazilian women who experienced TFGBV and who are writers, politicians, technologists, students, community organisers, artists and journalists. This project also sought to demonstrate how Black Brazilian women’s stories of resistance, connection and possibility, despite TFGBV and misogynoir.
Methodology
The research methodology relies on qualitative data collection methods, including 12 semi-structured interviews with Black Brazilian women who experienced TFGBV, 3 group gatherings with research participants, and critical observation of participants’ online presence.
The methodological choices are heavily informed by Black feminist thought, which has served both as an inspiration for research design and as the primary theoretical lens for data analysis, providing a framework that illustrates how race, gender, class and power shape the experiences of Black women on the internet. As a starting point, the researchers recognise that TFGBV cannot be analysed in isolation from the structures of race, class, gender and coloniality that shape the lives of Black Brazilian women. These allow the researchers to understand Brazil’s deeper patterns of racism and sexism in digital spaces and how it is connected to centuries-old structures that have consistently devalued and targeted Black women.
Key findings
- Black Brazilian women have been “carving out” their/our own spaces online and within digital technologies. In spite of mainstream digital technologies being often embedded with racism, sexism and misogynoir, Black Brazilian women are finding chasms and carving out their own spaces for relationship-building and knowledge exchange, collective- and self-expression, engagement with Black feminist discourse and activism, and influencing cultural and political agendas across the country.
- Online spaces are embedded with racism, sexism and misogynoir in Brazil and that impacts the experiences of Black Brazilian women online. The report illustrates stories of writers, activists and politicians whose public writing, organising, and political engagement online have been met with attempts to delegitimise and intimidate via TFGBV, as well as those of Black women working in science and tech, who face attacks as they step into professional roles and/or digital spaces.
- The findings reiterate the importance of analysing TFGBV and misogynoir against Black Brazilian women as phenomena that must be understood as continuations of broader violent expressions of racism, sexism and ableism prevalent in Brazilian society. The research found that TFGBV against Black Brazilian women often seeks to reproduce and/or amplify narratives of Black Brazilian women being inadequate contributors to public debate about politics, culture, society, race relations, social issues in Brazil and/or not being fit to occupy certain professional positions in fields predominantly occupied by white (and often mostly male) Brazilians.
- The report also discusses the consequences of TFGBV and misogynoir, sharing how they have impacted Black Brazilian women’s freedom of expression, leading to silencing, self- censoring and limitations of online behaviour; generate long-lasting psychological and emotional consequences; and, at times, become obstacles to women’s professional careers and engagement with activism. Black Brazilian women who experience TFGBV navigate a complex set of repercussions. Interviewees go through an intentional process of decision-making about their engagement with digital technologies, informed by notions of digital care, balancing an awareness of how online spaces are permeated by misogynoir and a belief that they can still be valuable for their goals.
- The report also highlights Black Brazilian women’s resistance, connection and possibility despite TFGBV and misogynoir. The researchers share highlights from conversations with research participants regarding the ways they are refusing to be silenced by TFGBV and misogynoir, how they have continued to “carve out” their own spaces, engaged with digital care practices, and fostered community and connection with other Black Brazilian women.