Marcha das Vadias: performing disidentification in transnational protests.

This article analyzes the visual rhetoric of Marcha das Vadias (MDV), a series of Brazilian protests inspired by SlutWalk Toronto (SWT) that adapted the reclamation of the pejorative "slut" into the culturally specific term "vadias." It argues that MDV protestors enacted disidentification—a rhetorical strategy that modifies and resists dominant narratives—by translating and transforming the "slut" persona to address intersecting systems of oppression including race, class, religion, and gender in Brazil. Through protest photography, the study identifies seven rhetorical personae, such as vadias, vítimas (victims), mulheres (women), and symbolic figures like Frida Kahlo and Cláudia da Silva Ferreira, which collectively enact a rhetoric of survivance emphasizing structural critique, collective agency, and non-linear temporality. The article highlights how MDV both maintains transnational solidarity with SlutWalk while simultaneously expanding and localizing its critique of rape culture and related violences under neoliberal and neocolonial regimes.