Politics of life and death: The reduction in the value of bodies and the increase in human precariousness in the first year of the pandemic

a redução do valor dos corpos e o aumento das precariedades humanas no primeiro ano de pandemia

Abstract

In this essay, we recall some violent events that occurred in Brazil during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, proposing reflections that inquire into the value of bodies in Brazilian society, as well as the patterns of inequality arising from gender hierarchies and institutional racism. We understand, especially from the thought of Judith Butler (2018), that vulnerability is an intrinsic condition of collective experience. However, this condition can be aggravated by impositions arising from new plots that different social markers of difference gain in special situations (MELO, MALFITANO, LOPES, 2020), such as the pandemic. Initially, we approached staying at home to social isolation as a prominent factor in the increase in cases of femicide and intrafamily violence, trough the perspectives of the patriarchy system (CONNEL, 2015) and violating culture (SEGATO, 2003). Later, we discussed the violence that affects certain bodies and territories, addressing the institutionalized logic of racism (SODRÉ, 2018; GONZALES, 1980; MOMBAÇA, 2016, 2020), and the production of theatricalities of death (DIÉGUEZ, 2013). We seek to elaborate an argument that articulates hierarchical violence to a notion of value (BUTLER, 2018; SEGATO, 2003; FERREIRA da SILVA, 2019) crossed by the politics of death (MBEMBE, 2018).