Belos , sadios e normais: as representações sociais dos corpos infantis modernos na revista pais & filhos (1968-1977)

Abstract

This study analyzes the social representations of children's bodies in the journal Pais & Filhos (Parents & Children) in the period from 1968 to 1977, when the publication considered itself a carrier of modern knowledge concerning care and education of children. It assumes theobservation that since modernity children has been revealed by a number of experts, based on the legitimacy that the scientific knowledge gives it, and that such knowledge is vulgarized through various media such as specialized magazines. In that sense, I investigate which socialrepresentations of children's bodies Pais & Filhos magazine carries out and, in doing so, which childhood ideal it helps to build and/or legitimate. I seek to understand these representations in order to identify the appearances or traces which constitute references considered desirable and undesirable for children, and to analyze areas of knowledge that areallowed to legislate on childhood and the knowledge, subjects, practices and institutions involved in the educational processes of children's bodies conveyed by the journal. Pais & Filhos is a monthly magazine dedicated to family, especially to mothers, addressing severalissues related primarily to raising children, from the womb to teenage. This is the oldest publication on the subject circulating currently, being published almost continuously since 1968. We have performed a general review of copies over the period 1968-1998 in order to understand aspects of the materiality of the magazine and its structure, such as sections, recurrent issues, among others, that seem to be relevant, and to establish a more specific time frame for the analysis of epresentations of children's bodies. From the data collected we have identified a great appeal to modern practices of raising children in the first decade ofpublication - 1968-1977. Thus, it interested me to focus a further observation on this period, in order to understand the representations rooted in modern discourse. I have enumerated ten magazines - one per year - for a closer look. From the technique of content analysis categorieswere raised that arise while dealing with the source and then, we performed a qualitative analysis of data obtained using the theory of social representations as the main reference for the interpretation. The results point to representations that signify the children's body asnatural, reduced to the biological character, place of the senses and instincts, and thus occupying a position hierarchically inferior to the mind. The body is anchored in the image of the machine, specifically the manufacturing machine. Regarding the aesthetic question, wehave identified an idealized appearance in the pages of Pais & Filhos, which deals with the issues of physical characteristics such as skin color, eye color and body composition, and the body presentation, such as cleaning and clothes. I deal also with the social representations ofchildren's bodies, constructed from the opposition of the categories healthy versus sick and normal versus abnormal. The representations analyzed show marks of modern rationality in the design of education of the childrens bodies in the magazine.