| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Brazilian thugs practice how to attack and even kill women who reject their advances and share their tips with other men online in disturbing new trend |
| 2026-05-10 |
| [Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The videos begin like romantic skits, with young men kneeling and clutching imaginary engagement rings or flowers, mimicking a proposal. Then a caption appears reading: 'Practicing in case she says no.' Suddenly, the videos take a dark turn, as the men erupt into violent outbursts, 'training' to attack women who reject them. One video shows a man pulling a kitchen knife from his jacket before repeatedly stabbing at an invisible off-camera woman. Another shows a man viciously punching a pillow sprawled across the floor as though it were a person. Others carry out the trend inside gyms, beating dummies and kicking punching bags while apparently imagining a woman turning them down. In several especially disturbing clips, men mimic pulling out guns and opening fire. In another viral video, a man performs the trend with a real woman, kicking her in the groin after she pretends to reject him. The trend, which has spread rapidly across Brazilian TikTok in recent weeks, has horrified women's rights campaigners and prompted intervention from Brazil's Federal Police and from TikTok itself which removed the videos from the platform. The creators behind it are mostly young Brazilian men, whose attempts at dark humour reflect all too well the grim reality of a country grappling with a surge in femicides. Brazil recorded 1,470 femicides in 2025, according to data from the Ministry of Justice and Public Security - the highest number since the crime was formally codified into Brazilian law in 2015. The figure surpassed the previous record set in 2024 and amounts to roughly four women murdered every day. In many of the country's most horrifying recent attacks, the trigger was not robbery or organised crime, but rejection. In April, 20-year-old Alana Rosa was stabbed more than 15 times inside her home in São Gonçalo, in Rio de Janeiro's metropolitan region by Luis Felipe Sampaio, a man who had persistently pursued her for months after meeting her at a gym. According to relatives, he repeatedly sent messages and gifts despite her lack of interest and continued attempting to contact her after she made clear she did not want a relationship. One day, he broke into her home and launched the frenzied knife attack. Alana miraculously survived after spending nearly a month in hospital. In Pernambuco, a 22-year-old woman was stabbed and set on fire by a former co-worker who had become obsessed with her after she rejected him romantically. In Minas Gerais, a 38-year-old woman was fatally stabbed after rejecting a man who allegedly attempted to forcibly kiss her during negotiations over the sale of a mobile phone. According to police, the suspect later claimed he had 'blanked out' and attacked her after she refused his advances. And in São Paulo, a man fatally ran over and dragged his former partner, resulting in the amputation of both her legs and ultimately her death. Under Brazilian law, femicide refers specifically to gender-based killings, particularly those linked to domestic violence, misogyny or contempt towards women. The legislation recognises that women are often murdered not simply because of interpersonal conflict, but because some men believe they have the right to control or punish women who do not conform to expected behaviour. Professor Fiona Macaulay, an expert on gender violence in Brazil and Professor of Gender, Peace & Development at Bradford University, told the Daily Mail that the TikTok videos reflect the broader society in which some men increasingly feel entitled to punish women for refusing them. 'The law recognises that there are social norms around what society expects from women,' Macaulay said, 'and that women are often killed by men out of a desire to punish or control them.' 'It's all about hierarchy, and women are positioned as controllable. Whether it's religious or secular nationalism, left or right, women are often placed lower in the hierarchy. 'The idea that women should have equality is treated as somehow threatening.' She also believes Brazil's own political climate helped intensify these attitudes. During the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, the hard-Right former president cultivated an image built around hypermasculinity, or 'machismo', hostility towards progressive politics and contempt for the vulnerable, including women, she said. Bolsonaro also loosened gun ownership laws, dramatically increasing civilian access to firearms in a country already marked by high levels of violence. 'There has been a kind of permission given for the use of violence that I think didn't exist before,' Macaulay said. She described Bolsonaro as embodying 'swaggering masculinity' and said the wider movement surrounding him reinforced hierarchical ideas about gender and power. 'There's a creeping climate where some men feel emboldened,' she said. 'Feeling like violence against women is justified because men rule the roost and women shouldn't be saying no to them.' For decades, Brazilian courts allowed men accused of murdering wives or girlfriends to use what became known as the 'honour defence', arguing they had been driven into uncontrollable rage after discovering infidelity or suffering humiliation. The legal doctrine effectively framed women themselves as responsible for provoking the violence inflicted upon them. By the 1970s, women's movements in Brazil were protesting furiously against the defence, arguing that it legitimised femicide and excused male brutality. Brazil's Supreme Court eventually ruled the defence unconstitutional in 1991. 'But I think vestiges of that thinking still remain,' Macaulay said. 'The idea that women should be punished for perceived misconduct.' That mentality, she argues, helps explain why rejection itself can become so dangerous. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |