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Abstract(s)
Na modernidade tardia, os estilos de vida e as identidades juvenis têm sido amplamente
negociados em função dos mercados e do seu interesse em maximizar o potencial dos jovens
enquanto consumidores. Neste âmbito, as estruturas sociais têm exercido cada vez mais
pressão sobre as suas biografias de escolha a partir de uma racionalidade neoliberal que
instaura processos de autogovernança e gestão de riscos. As raparigas são quem, nesta
conjuntura, mais suscita o interesse das economias neoliberais e das ordens discursivas que
as retroalimentam continuamente, constituindo-se como os seus sujeitos ideais. A
correlação entre as identidades das jovens, as estruturas económicas e as especificidades
sociológicas da modernidade tardia tem motivado a crescente produção e disseminação de
textos mediáticos que cooptam uma “sensibilidade pós-feminista”. O termo alude à forma
como a representação das raparigas nos media tem sido feita a partir do pressuposto de que
estas têm agora poder e liberdade para se reinventarem e gerirem as suas escolhas,
designadamente através de comportamentos de consumo. Refere-se também aos modos
pelos quais os textos pós-feministas tendem a articular domínios ideológicos de regulação
das identidades de género. É neste enquadramento que é aqui entendida a função socializadora
das revistas juvenis femininas, como práticas discursivas que constituem e são constituídas
por representações sobre os modos de ser e agir como rapariga na contemporaneidade.
Esta tese inscreve-se na Análise Crítica do Discurso e desenvolve uma abordagem de cariz
dialético-relacional multimodal que investiga representações da feminilidade em páginas de
rosto de 102 editoriais de moda e em 30 editoriais de beleza integrais, publicados, entre 2007
e 2015, em edições portuguesas das revistas Ragazza e Cosmopolitan. Neste enquadramento,
para o estudo das representações, são usados instrumentos analíticos dos significados
representacionais na aceção de Fairclough (2003) e Kress e van Leeuwen (2006), a partir de
uma perspetiva qualitativa transdisciplinar que se identifica com a agenda da Análise Crítica
Feminista do Discurso. A partir da consideração das relações que se estabelecem entre as
estruturas neoliberais, incluindo os regimes de autogovernança que instauram, e domínios de
represesentação textual influenciados pelo ideário pós-feminista, procuro identificar e
explicar o funcionamento de discursos multimodais sobre a feminilidade, sinalizar e
interpretar potenciais configurações ideológicas que nelas se materializem e indagar a função
que os editoriais de moda e beleza analisados desempenham na ordem social de género
contemporânea. Os resultados indicam que, nos editoriais de moda e beleza em análise, a articulação entre
os modos verbal e visual constrói processos de tecnologização e neoliberalização da
juventude feminina, transformando-a numa “mascarada”. A representação da feminilidade
como mascarada é constituída nos textos através de discursos que a qualificam como
artifício consentido e assumido pelas raparigas, isto é, como um projeto de encenação que
requer práticas continuadas de transformação do corpo e da mente que, por seu turno, são
fixadas como atividades lúdicas, aprazíveis e agregadas a comportamentos rotineiros de
consumo. Estes contextos de representação resultam da internalização de significados que
caracterizam a sensibilidade pós-feminista e que também se evidenciam na forma como os
editoriais dão visibilidade a subjetividades neoliberalizadas e reguladas por processos de
governança. Nos textos em escrutínio, os domínios de regulação das práticas de moda e
beleza das raparigas assumem contornos multidimensionais. Por um lado, são visíveis na
forma como as vozes editoriais apelam à gestão reflexiva da aparência e das subjetividades
das jovens, ou seja, nos modos como são articulados discursos de escolha, autonomia e
agência. Trata-se, contudo, de um tipo de agência funcional vinculada, através de recursos
multimodais, a práticas de consumo e traduzida num trabalho incessante de reinvenção
estética que não pressupõe intenções e/ou ações emancipatórias por parte das raparigas. Por
outro lado, e simultaneamente, persistem e articulam-se multimodalmente discursos que
legitimam e celebram identidades femininas inscritas num paradigma social heteronormativo
que, por sua vez, normaliza assimetrias de classe, etárias e étnicas.
In late modernity, youth lifestyles and identities have been widely negotiated according to the markets and their interest in maximising young people’s potential as consumers. In this context, social structures have been increasing the pressure on young people’s choice biographies, namely by means of a neoliberal rationality that establishes processes of selfgovernance and risk management. Young women are the ones who in this conjuncture spark greater interest for the neoliberal economies and the orders of discourse that continuously feed into each other, thus being constituted as their ideal subjects. The correlation between young women’s subjectivities, economic structures and the sociological specificities of late modernity has been the driving force behind the production and dissemination of a growing number of media texts that co-opt a “postfeminist sensibility”. The term refers to the ways in which the representation of girls’ identities in media texts has been increasingly done under the assumption that they now have the power and the freedom to reinvent themselves and manage their choices, namely through consumption behaviours. It also relates to the ways in which postfeminist texts tend to articulate ideological domains of regulation of gender identities. This framing explains the way this work understands the socialising function of young women’s magazines, as discursive practices that shape and are shaped by contemporary representations about modes of being and acting as a girl. This thesis falls within the field of Critical Discourse Analysis and develops a dialecticalrelational and multimodal approach that investigates representations of femininity on the cover pages of 102 fashion editorials and in 30 complete beauty editorials published between 2007 and 2015 in Portuguese editions of Ragazza and Cosmopolitan. To study representations within this framework, I use analytical tools for adressing representational meanings, as these meanings are described by Fairclough (2003) and Kress and van Leeuwen (2006), from a qualitative and transdisciplinary perspective that identifies with the agenda of Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis. Through the consideration of connections established between the neoliberal structures, including the regimes of self-governance that they give privilege to, and domains of textual representation influenced by the postfeminist frame of thought, I aim at identifying and explaining multimodal discourses about femininity, pointing out and interpreting ideological configurations that they potentially materialise, as well as examining the function of the fashion and beauty editorials under analysis in the current gender social order. Results indicate that, in the analysed fashion and beauty editorials, the articulation between the verbal and visual modes constructs processes of technologisation and neoliberalisation of female youth, transforming it into a “masquerade”. The representation of femininity as masquerade is textually built through discourses that qualify it as an artifice that girls willingly accept and enact, that is, as a performative project that requires continuous practices of body and mind transformation that, in turn, are naturalised as fun and pleasurable activities which are dependent upon routines of consumption. This reflects the modes through which these representational contexts internalise meanings that characterize the postfeminist sensibility, also evident in the ways editorials grant visibility to neoliberal subjectivities that are regulated by processes of governance. In the texts under scrutiny, the domains that regulate girls’ fashion and beautification practices are multidimensional. On the one hand, regulatory dimensions are visible in how editorial voices call for the reflexive management of girls’ appearance and subjectivities, that is, in the ways texts articulate discourses of choice, autonomy and agency. It is, however, a type of functional agency multimodally linked to consumption practices and translated into a never-ending work of aesthetic reinvention which, for girls, does not imply emancipatory intentions and/or actions. On the other hand, and simultaneously, texts convey multimodal discourses that persistently legitimise and celebrate feminine identities inscribed within a heteronormative social paradigm which, in turn, normalises assimetries based on age, class and ethnicity.
In late modernity, youth lifestyles and identities have been widely negotiated according to the markets and their interest in maximising young people’s potential as consumers. In this context, social structures have been increasing the pressure on young people’s choice biographies, namely by means of a neoliberal rationality that establishes processes of selfgovernance and risk management. Young women are the ones who in this conjuncture spark greater interest for the neoliberal economies and the orders of discourse that continuously feed into each other, thus being constituted as their ideal subjects. The correlation between young women’s subjectivities, economic structures and the sociological specificities of late modernity has been the driving force behind the production and dissemination of a growing number of media texts that co-opt a “postfeminist sensibility”. The term refers to the ways in which the representation of girls’ identities in media texts has been increasingly done under the assumption that they now have the power and the freedom to reinvent themselves and manage their choices, namely through consumption behaviours. It also relates to the ways in which postfeminist texts tend to articulate ideological domains of regulation of gender identities. This framing explains the way this work understands the socialising function of young women’s magazines, as discursive practices that shape and are shaped by contemporary representations about modes of being and acting as a girl. This thesis falls within the field of Critical Discourse Analysis and develops a dialecticalrelational and multimodal approach that investigates representations of femininity on the cover pages of 102 fashion editorials and in 30 complete beauty editorials published between 2007 and 2015 in Portuguese editions of Ragazza and Cosmopolitan. To study representations within this framework, I use analytical tools for adressing representational meanings, as these meanings are described by Fairclough (2003) and Kress and van Leeuwen (2006), from a qualitative and transdisciplinary perspective that identifies with the agenda of Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis. Through the consideration of connections established between the neoliberal structures, including the regimes of self-governance that they give privilege to, and domains of textual representation influenced by the postfeminist frame of thought, I aim at identifying and explaining multimodal discourses about femininity, pointing out and interpreting ideological configurations that they potentially materialise, as well as examining the function of the fashion and beauty editorials under analysis in the current gender social order. Results indicate that, in the analysed fashion and beauty editorials, the articulation between the verbal and visual modes constructs processes of technologisation and neoliberalisation of female youth, transforming it into a “masquerade”. The representation of femininity as masquerade is textually built through discourses that qualify it as an artifice that girls willingly accept and enact, that is, as a performative project that requires continuous practices of body and mind transformation that, in turn, are naturalised as fun and pleasurable activities which are dependent upon routines of consumption. This reflects the modes through which these representational contexts internalise meanings that characterize the postfeminist sensibility, also evident in the ways editorials grant visibility to neoliberal subjectivities that are regulated by processes of governance. In the texts under scrutiny, the domains that regulate girls’ fashion and beautification practices are multidimensional. On the one hand, regulatory dimensions are visible in how editorial voices call for the reflexive management of girls’ appearance and subjectivities, that is, in the ways texts articulate discourses of choice, autonomy and agency. It is, however, a type of functional agency multimodally linked to consumption practices and translated into a never-ending work of aesthetic reinvention which, for girls, does not imply emancipatory intentions and/or actions. On the other hand, and simultaneously, texts convey multimodal discourses that persistently legitimise and celebrate feminine identities inscribed within a heteronormative social paradigm which, in turn, normalises assimetries based on age, class and ethnicity.
Description
Keywords
Análise Crítica do Discurso Revistas juvenis femininas Representação Género Multimodalidade Neoliberalismo Sensibilidade pós-feminista