Affective politics. The ‘Vulgar Vibes’ of Brazilian far-right anti-feminism

Abstract A baby-bottle shaped as a phallus, a book illustrating oral sex practices for small children or lesbians defecating in a church were circulating as Bolsonaro was elected president in 2018. The left-wing ministry of health was purportedly promoting the baby bottle, the ministry of education the book and the National Secretariat of Politics for Women endorsing lesbians. What is the political significance this crass vulgarity for the far-right in Brazil and beyond? Answering that question, requires de-centering reason and facts and re-centering resonance and affects. Not the information but the crudeness of the images matter. To ‘figure’ how, we work with three thinkers that help us grapple with how the vibes of the Brazilian far-right anti-feminist vulgarity emerge and spread, how they orient politics and how they can be challenged. Unpacking Achille Mbembe’s ‘aesthetics of vulgarity’, displacing Noura Tafeche’s Kawayoku and complementing Vladimir Safatle’s ‘helplessness’, we show how vulgar vibes are circulating, charaterzing politics and what is challenging them. We propose this figure of vulgar vibes as an encouragement and invitation to urgently ‘go figure’ how ‘affective politics’ such as that of ‘vulgar far-right anti-feminism’ can be more effectively engaged in Brazil and elsewhere.