Xuxa Meneghel, 59, made a video talking about a speech by President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), candidate for reelection, about having “painted an atmosphere” with “little girls aged 14 or 15” during a visit to São Sebastião, in periphery of the Federal District. “Vote against this gentleman,” she asked.
In a video posted on a social network, the presenter recalled being a victim of sexual abuse and said she was “choked, disgusted and angry that no one is doing anything”. “Can he do it because he’s president? Can he do it because he’s a man?” she questioned.
“You can say what you want and we can’t scream, scream, saying this is wrong, that this doesn’t have to happen, that it can’t happen?”, he continued. “Does our society think this is right, normal? People are more concerned now whether who stole more or who stole less, who is lying more, who is lying less?”
Bolsonaro’s statement was given in an interview with a podcast on the 14th. After the speeches gained great repercussion on social networks, he recorded a video apologizing, but stressed that the negative repercussion was generated by third parties, who would have taken his lines from context or they would not have understood what he meant.
In her response, Xuxa mentioned a subject that used to be taboo for her: her participation in the film “Amor Estranho Amor” (1982), in which she appears in sex scenes with a teenager. The work had been used to discredit the presenter since she declared her vote for Lula (PT) in the first round of the elections.
“First of all, I would like to tell you that whoever is speaking here is not that girl who was 18 years old and played the role of a 15 year old girl who was sold to a brothel to be given as a gift to a politician” , commented. “This film was based on some stories and took place in the year 1939, 1940. And to this day we hear and see situations like these.”
However, remember that it was a fiction. “I’m going to tell you a truth: around my 3, 4 years old I suffered my first abuse and consequently many others happened”, he lamented. “And lastly, it was at 13 years old, with an old man who cornered me in a wall.”
“I was just wearing a t-shirt and a bikini bottom,” he said. “He ran his hand all over my body, and I didn’t say anything and I didn’t do anything, but when he tried to kiss me I pushed him away and left crying.”
She goes on to say that she made the story public only as an adult in order to help others who had gone through something similar. “Like me and a lot of girls out there, they think we were wearing the wrong clothes, in the wrong place,” she said. “I’ve always felt guilty for being big, for attracting attention, for being ‘pretty’ in the eyes of the old men, the men who approached me. And our culture, instead of putting the finger on these old men, blames the girls for being in that place, like that.”
To her more than 12 million followers, she complained about the president’s statement, remembering that he said they were “making a living”, that is, prostituting themselves. “I wanted to make it clear to you that no child aged 13 or 14 is prostituted,” said Xuxa. “This is sexual exploitation of children and adolescents.”
She also cited former minister Damares Alves, who said she had seen photos of children who had their teeth pulled out for sexual practices, and made an appeal for people to report it if they learn of something similar. “Because taking that information and doing nothing, in my opinion, is just as guilty as the one who does,” she said. “So I’d like to make it very clear that if this happened and these people saw it, heard it and did nothing, they are also to blame.”
For the presenter, it’s no use wearing t-shirts saying that “pedophilia is a crime” and not doing anything else. “It’s obvious, it’s a murder, these girls are being killed, their souls are being slaughtered,” she lamented. “Who says yes to pedophilia? You, by doing nothing, by not screaming for these children who can’t scream? I didn’t scream then, but today I want to scream.”
Xuxa said that the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents will continue as long as phrases like the president’s are normalized. “You can say: ‘But he didn’t do anything, he just spoke’. Could it be? Could it be? For me to think… I don’t want to shut up, I won’t shut up. I’m here as a mother asking you to be woman, you who are a mother, you who are a grandmother, please don’t let this go unnoticed. We can’t keep touching these people’s heads who say that and nothing happens.”
“‘But he didn’t have sex, Xuxa, so it’s not pedophilia.’ [seu abusador] did to me, he didn’t have sex with me, but he thought that the fact that I was wearing a t-shirt and cute… painted a mood”, he compared. “He saw himself in the right to get close to me and touch me. Is that really, in his eyes, not a crime?”
She ended by declaring that the president’s speech cannot be forgotten. “Some people are saying ‘but he already apologized’, ‘he already said he didn’t mean it’, ‘but he already said something else’. No, I will never forget what he said,” she said. “I will never forget it. And you, will you? My vote for him is no. My vote he will never have. And you, are you going to sleep with this one? Knowing that you voted for him because you didn’t want to vote for someone else?”
After the publication, the presenter received the support of several celebrities, such as Ingrid Guimarães and Monica Iozzi. Her husband, Junno Andrade, wrote: “I love you!!! I really admire your courage!!! Count on me always!!!”. Her daughter, Sasha Meneghel, said she is “an example of strength”.
I have worked in the news industry for over 10 years. I have been an author at News Bulletin 247 for the past 2 years. I mostly cover politics news. I am a highly experienced and respected journalist. I have won numerous awards for my work.
