Ame seu corpo, inclusive sua vagina: estudo sociológico da produção discursiva sobre a autoestima vaginal e empoderamento feminino nas mídias digitais

Abstract

This study analyses the discursive production about normality and female intimate beauty, collected between February of 2015 and June of 2018 in different digital media. It analyzes the content available in several online pages that reveal multiple positions of enunciation about what would be a "perfect vagina" and that manages different types of engagements regarding the multifaceted phenomenon "intimate embellishment". It examines the central role of media texts, which help in the diffusion of biomedical injunctions on the female body, and also of activist texts that, together, animate a debate based on contradictions in the articulation of imaginaries about aesthetics and the ideal relation of the woman with her vulvovaginal region. From this discussion, a series of questions are raised that point to the existence of a global social taboo around the "vagina" that, in several aspects, affects the "vaginal self-esteem" of women of different age groups and nationalities. Some of the impacts of this taboo are discussed through the analysis of personal reports that have the "vagina" as the main narrative element, where one perceives the conflicting relationship between women and their own genitalia. It also discusses the conformation of gender stereotypes based on cultural practices responsible for "women's body silences" (PERROT, 2003), such as the lack of enlightening education about the "natural" changes of the body, the use of ―palavrões, sinônimos e falas populares‖ (MAIO, 2011) to avoid direct reference to the organ and the censors that are made to the uses of its image in different spaces, particularly in digital spaces, as some of the multiple effects of this taboo in modern society. Taking as a starting point reflections from the field of gender studies, lesbian and queer studies about the heterocentered regime - such as Preciado (2011, 2014, 2018), Butler (2014), Lauretis (1994), Wittig (1980; (2010) and Bento (2006; 2008), the main argument of the thesis is that the sexual organs are "biopolitical somatic fictions" that we recognize as natural as well as notions of masculinity and femininity, which are permeated by culturally ingrained and discriminatory practices that aim at the social control of the "vagina". The study seeks, in this sense, to contribute to the debate about the artificiality of the codes generated by "sexopolitical technologies" (PRECIADO, 2018) and the association between "vagina", femininity and beauty.