THE FEMALE BODY IN THE PUBLIC SCENE IN NATAL/RN: FROM PUBLICIZATION OF HEGEMONIC IMAGES TO DISCORDANT ONES
Media studies. Publicity. Gender. Woman. Body.
This research aims to study the images of female body in the public scene in Natal, capital of Rio Grande do Norte, observing reiterations and variations of hegemonic images to understand how voices that disagree or resist to publicization of woman’s submission images and female body’s exploration are manifested. I consider that expressions in graffiti about the female gender are the manifestation of a nuisance and the demonstration that these voices do not have institutionalized manifestation spaces. Moreover, I use as methodological procedure the realization of incursions through the main corridors of the city, by which it was constituted a corpus by exposed images in billboards and interventions in graffiti transmitted in walls, plaques and facades. As theoretical basis, I use the concepts and analytical procedures of Semiotics of Culture (BYSTRINA; 1995; BAITELLO JUNIOR; 2014; FLUSSER, 2007), dialoguing with authors who discuss social movements, issues of gender and sexuality, women’s history and feminism (BEAUVOIR, 2016; BUTLER, 2017; SAFFIOTI, 1979; SARTI, 2001; SCOTT, 1995; BOURDIEU, 2017; FOUCAULT, 1988); the body as media, language that uses the body as a sign (SANTAELLA, 2004; SANT’ANA, 2001); which deals with images, aesthetics and fashion (BARTHES, 1984; E LIPOVETSKY, 2009); images of the feminine in advertising (BAUDRILLARD, 1996; BERGER, 2000); and that discusses graphics as urban texts (SILVA, 2008; ROCHA, 1992). As a preliminary result, I propose that the female body is hegemonically presented on the public scene according to the aesthetic standards of subalternity and objectification – such objetification of the body that is criticized in the studies of communication and gender, which questions advertising, that embraces diversity. Graffiti are expressions fixed on the surfaces and equipments of the city that manifest disagreement with stereotyped feminine images and the objetification of the woman’s body.