Damares Alves, Brazil's new minister of women, family, and human rights, has a message for the country's children.
Menino veste azul e menina veste rosa, diz Ministra @damaresralves em pronunciamento.
"Attention, attention! It's a new era in Brazil: Boys wear blue and girls wear pink!" the lawyer and evangelical pastor turned government official tweeted. And in her inaugural speech, she declared, "A girl will be a princess and a boy will be a prince."
Yeah, that means you, sweetie.
It's not exactly the wildest thing that's been done in the (checks watch) three days that Jair Bolsonaro has been president.
Within a day of taking office, the far-right president removed LGBT people as a category protected under human rights law, put a general in charge of keeping tabs on international organizations and NGOs, and gave the Agriculture Ministry — which the Washington Post notes is dominated by the big agriculture lobby — "control over areas reserved for Brazil’s indigenous peoples and the descendants of former slaves."
But Brazilians were quick to dunk on Alves' outdated statement.
Maísa Silva, host of a popular Brazilian's children show, said she never liked pink as a child, and some of her friends didn't either.
mano... quando eu era criança e comecei a escolher minhas roupas eu escolhia td menos rosa pq n gostava... assim como varias amiguinhas minhas n gostavam de rosa. mt ultrapassado isso
"Bro... when I was a kid and I started to choose my clothes, I chose less pink because I liked it... just as several of my friends did not like pink. It's over."
And look at all these Disney Princesses who DARED to wear blue.
putz, como a damares alves vai ficar sabendo que as princesas vestem azul? com certeza cor tem gênero e elas são meninos né
"Does Damares Alves know that the princesses wear blue? Of course color has gender, and they are boys, right?"
Famed Brazilian chef Paola Carosella apologized for having the ~nerve~ to wear blue in her profile picture.
Meninos azul e meninas rosa. Que bonito. Era tão fácil de resolver meu. Como não reparamos antes ! Era só comprar a roupa da cor certa!!!! - ja vou trocando a foto de perfil desculpa -
"Blue boys and pink girls. That's cute. It was so easy to sort out. How have we not noticed before! Just buy the right color clothes!!!! I'm already changing the profile picture. Sorry."
Some chose to draw attention to some of the more serious matters happening under Bolsonaro.
Mano, quase 6 milhões de crianças sem pai no registro, feminicídio pra crl, mais de 20 milhões de mulheres criando filho sozinhas, violência doméstica, adultério, pai sem pagar pensão, criança morando na rua, e a ministra preocupada que menino tem que vestir azul mano FODA-SE
"Bro, almost 6 million of children without a parent in the registry, femicide out of control, more than 20 million single mothers, domestic violence, adultery, fathers not paying alimony, children living on the street, and the minister is concerned that boys have to wear blue. Bro. Fuck you."
Others worried about whether clothing stores were prepared to meet such a demand.
"menino veste azul, menina veste rosa" Qual a novidade?
"'Boys wear blue, girls wear pink.' What's new?"
And v importantly: WHERE DO THE GOTHS FIT IN??
meninos veste azul meninas veste rosa e as gótica fica onde? n temos genero agora? o brasil está perdido
"Boys dress blue. Girls dress pink, and the goths stay where? We do not have a gender now? Brazil is lost."
One user tweeted what appears to be [squints] yes, that is Alves wearing blue.
alguém me explica pq a pastora damares ta de azul isso é cor de homem
"Someone explain to me why Pastor Damares is wearing blue if it's a man's color."
SCANDAL.
"meninos vestem azul e meninas vestem rosa" UÉ
And this user reminded folks that the whole blue/pink dichotomy only began to exist after World War II.
@Brellasker Na verdade a dualidade azul rosa surgiu após a II Guerra por estratégia comercial. Antes, rosa era uma cor masculina por remeter ao sangue e à virilidade e azul era feminina por ser suave. Com a crise do pós-guerra, as lojas inverteram a lógica.
This Super article says that in a 1918 ad for a children's shop there was the mention that "pink was for boys and blue for girls." The rose would be a more "strong and determined" color and the blue more "delicate and amiable."
Well, at least Alves won't see anything wrong with this tweet!
menino vai usar azul e menina vai usar rosa
This post was translated from Portuguese.