“Posso ir embora? Se eu ficar aqui vou chorar” masculinidade em debate nos grupos reflexivos para homens

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes how men who commit gender-based violence construct and perform their masculinities in contexts of judicial accountability, focusing on the Reflective Groups provided for by the Maria da Penha Law and regulated by Law No. 13,984/2020. The research was conducted in the fictional city of Oyá, with 480 men distributed across 40 groups, led by the team of the Association Cultive a Paz (CAP), in partnership with the local justice system. It is assumed that masculinity is not a fixed essence, but a social and discursive construction, permeated by power norms and gender expectations. Based on authors such as Judith Butler, Pierre Bourdieu, Raewyn Connell, Michel Foucault, and Patricia Hill Collins, the qualitative approach included participant observation, analysis of institutional documents, and discursive records obtained throughout thirteen meetings per group. The participants’ profile reveals mostly white, heterosexual men with low education and income levels, and a history of family violence. Initially, a discursive pattern marked by self-victimization, resistance to accountability, and lack of awareness about the broadened concept of gender-based violence is observed. However, throughout the meetings, subjective fissures emerge: manifestations of shame, expression of affection, and recognition of abusive behaviors. Episodes such as the phrase ―Can I leave? If I stay here I will cry‖ become emblematic of the tension between the performance of hegemonic masculinity and the possibility of emotional rupture. The groups use symbolic tools such as reflective letters, life wheels, educational videos, and dynamics with questions to stimulate self-reflection. Although they do not guarantee definitive transformations, they constitute pedagogical and political spaces for subjective displacement. It is concluded that accountability through educational means is more effective than isolated punishment, and that men should be understood as subjects who exercise violence but also as products of a patriarchal system that permeates them. By proposing an ethical and critical listening to masculinities, this dissertation contributes to the debate on public policies to confront gender-based violence, betting on the transformative power of collective reflection.