ABSTRACT
Sexual harassment has been the focus of intense political, social, and gender debate. Yet, at the core of the sexual harassment debate there is explicit and implicit disagreement to what actually constitutes harassment. This chapter examines a discussion on sexual harassment in the Brazilian printed press, in newspapers and magazines, addressing a public event that had significant public attention worldwide: the #Metoo movement in the international film industry. Using frame analysis, the text discusses inconsistencies, conflicts, and paradoxes that emerged in this debate. Much ambiguity is captured in labels, definitions, and interviewees’ positions. A case in point is a well-known Brazilian female journalist (also a media celebrity), who in her weekly column strongly expressed defiance to the concept of sexual abuse, advocating independent feminine sexual life, while also supporting very conservative and sexist ideas. Her column generated controversy, both in the traditional and digital media, provoking new responses (and reframings) in interviews and letters to the editor. The discussion illustrates that written media matters, and that it is still relevant to examine how a specific sector of society (celebrities and intellectuals) expresses itself in the press, with robust resonance in the digital world.
