A ‘spiritual’ grammar for a moral project: Godllywood Movement, anti-feminism and Brazil’s New Right

Anti-feminist rhetoric has often been mobilized by rising populist far-right actors, especially in democratic backsliding scenarios. From the United States and Europe to Latin America, discourses fueled by 'gender ideology' rhetoric has been serving to attack women's reproductive rights and LGBTQIA+ rights, apart from enabling alliances between right-wing and conservative religious groups — including those formed by women. Bearing this in mind, the present study sheds light on the roles played by the Godllywood Movement’s female leaders in Brazil, within the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God — a supporter of Bolsonaro’s presidential candidacies. By using discourse analysis to examine Godllywood’s media ecosystem during 2018 and 2022, this study reveals how the movement constructs an anti-feminist ‘spiritual’ grammar, forged by its purpose of ´making women better for God’. Additionally, it sheds light on the roles played by the sacred, demonstrating how Godllywood strategically opposes feminism to Christianity while fueling the Brazilian New Right moral repertoire. Finally, the study features the Godllywood position in this religion-politics equivalence chain, opening new avenues to explore the emergence of women's neo-pentecostal groups in Brazil and their contributions to the moral agendas in the political arena.