A War Against Gender: discursive and political disputes in sexual and reproductive

Abstract

This article presents a critical analysis of the documentary Gênero sob Ataque (Frazão, 2018), examining the impact of conservative and religious rhetoric on the sexual and reproductive health of Brazilian women. It aims to understand how moral and religious discourses shape public policies and regulate dissident bodies by framing "gender ideology" as a social threat. The study adopts a qualitative methodology, grounded in critical discourse analysis and informed by the theoretical contributions of Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Marcel Mauss, along with insights from Gender Studies and Collective Health. The findings reveal that the political instrumentalization of antigender discourse operates as a mechanism of social and moral control, restricting rights, reinforcing gender hierarchies, and delegitimizing diverse identities, particularly those of Black and peripheral women. The public health field, especially reproductive health, emerges as a site of symbolic and institutional struggle, where religious narratives, biomedical knowledge, and feminist agendas intersect. The article concludes that resisting the moralization of sexuality and the erasure of difference requires affirming sexual and reproductive rights as inalienable human rights and strengthening public policies rooted in secularism, equity, and social justice.