Valeska Zanello
Profile
Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Brasília (UnB) and the originating intellectual architect of Brazil's misogyny criminalisation effort. Zanello authored the citizen legislative proposal (Sugestão Legislativa) that was submitted via the Brazilian Senate's public portal — gathering over 20,000 signatures within five days in 2023 and triggering the formal legislative process that became PL 896/2023. Her framing explicitly extended the bill's reach to everyday speech acts — including "sexist jokes" — as manifestations of misogyny warranting legal response, arguing that such speech constitutes violence against women. Zanello has publicly stated the law's purpose is in part "educative" — that criminalising speech sends a public signal about acceptable discourse. Critics argue this expressly pedagogical use of criminal law to reshape permissible social speech is a paradigmatic example of using hate speech law to police ordinary expression rather than genuine incitement to violence.