"Garota bonita": as representações sobre beleza e feminilidade na imprensa chapecoense

Abstract

This monography intends to discuss the gender prescriptions represented in the press, highlighting the ideals of beauty and femininity as a social construction. The object of analysis was the column entitled Garota Bonita, published in the newspaper A voz de Chapecó during 1946, in the municipality of Chapecó, West of Santa Catarina. The speech present in the newspaper during the year 1946 served to understand the construction and representation of gender identity in the municipality, implied by the ideals of beauty and femininity, perceiving the frequent advertisements of beauty contests, medical advice, absences in textual speeches politicians and, mainly, the content of the column Garota Bonita, which disseminated models of behavior to women, advising on marriage, domestic life and social etiquette. The publications of the historian Tânia Regina de Luca contributed to the methodological development of this research, in dealing with journalistic sources. To support the investigation, the concept of gender was used as a category of historical analysis, as well as foundations of women's history. It was found in the analyzed discourse ideals of femininity that associated beauty with domestic work. The investigation made it possible to perceive changes in the ways of feeling, making love increasingly idealized and, with that, prescribing behaviors to fit in these romantic ideals. All these prescriptions of gender identity met with resistance, since it is understood that the column Garota Bonita existed because there was no social consensus on the place of women in society, to the point that Eugênio expressed dissatisfaction with women who fought for equal rights.