Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has drawn sharp criticism after telling a campaign rally that girls learn to “get touched” from a young age, remarks his own party says were meant to describe gynecological screening but which opponents call offensive and confused.
Lula made the comments Monday night in Belém, Pará, one of his final public campaign stops before Brazil’s October 4 presidential election, in which he is seeking a fourth term. Hours earlier he had toured the São João de Deus Hospital in Belém, where a new robotic surgery unit capable of performing prostate cancer operations had just been unveiled.
At the rally, Lula referenced his mother, Eurídice “Dona Linda” Ferreira de Melo, who died of cervical cancer during an era when treatment was far less advanced. He went on to say men are “cowards” who avoid prostate screening because they “don’t like to get touched,” then added: “Women learn to get touched from a young age, men don’t.”
“Today, we performed the first robotic prostate surgery here in the state of Pará and in the north of the country… Men don’t like getting prostate exams. They don’t like to get touched. Women learn to get touched from a young age, men don’t,” Lula said, according to Poder 360.
He went on to describe the benefits of robotic prostate surgery, saying patients no longer face urinary incontinence or the need for diapers, can go home the same day or the next, and face no risk of sexual impotence.
The remarks set off immediate backlash, prompting Lula’s Workers’ Party (PT) to release a statement insisting the president was “obviously referring to preventive gynecological exams, which, culturally speaking, are part of women’s routine health care from a young age,” while noting that “men, due to the prevalence of a culture that is still sexist, are reluctant to undergo preventive urological exams.”
The party also claimed the controversy was being manufactured by the campaign of conservative Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, accusing it of trying to “misrepresent the President’s statement” out of “desperation over the latest poll results” and to distract from allegations against Bolsonaro.
Polling in recent days has shown Lula and Bolsonaro essentially tied in a prospective runoff, with Bolsonaro showing a slight edge. None of the 13 candidates on the ballot is expected to win outright in the first round.
Poder 360 reported, citing Brazilian health authorities, that cervical cancer screening in the country is offered only to sexually active women between ages 25 and 64, according to government guidance published online — not to young girls, as Lula’s remarks suggested. A Brazilian doctor, Victor Augustho, filed a formal request Wednesday morning asking the Brazilian Society of Pediatrics for its official position on the matter.
Senator Bolsonaro responded in a video posted to social media Tuesday, noting he has two daughters, ages 14 and 12, who he said are not “used to getting touched” from a young age.
“What you’re saying is prejudiced, sexist, and shows you don’t understand a thing. Your words reveal a lack of character,” Bolsonaro said. “Women need to be protected, and children need to be cared for. You are in no position whatsoever to continue serving as president of the Republic.”
Liberal Party lawmaker Nikolas Ferreira also posted a video disputing the PT’s explanation, saying plainly, “Girls aren’t to be touched from an early age.”
Lula responded at a Tuesday night rally in Salvador, Bahia, calling Ferreira a “bastard” and accusing him of inventing claims about him online. He then handed the microphone to his wife, First Lady Rosângela “Janja” Lula da Silva, asking her to clarify his comments. Instead, using regional slang from her home state of Paraná, she called Ferreira a “piá de bosta” — roughly, “little shit” — and told him to “wash his mouth” before speaking about her husband.
“No little video of a guy in a T-shirt is going to make women lose their trust in this man, who was speaking with emotion about his mother, who had cancer,” the first lady said.
