Celebridades-resistência : um olhar pragmatista e interseccional para as ações de Preta Gil e Thais Carla no enfrentamento à gordofobia e a outras opressões

Abstract

Our purpose with this research is to understand how Preta Gil and Thais Carla, Brazilian celebrities, adopt a position of resistance against fatphobia and other oppression, and how, through their actions, they can influence the resignification of hegemonic representation of minorities. The conceptual foundation was developed based on two main themes: fatphobia and celebrity-resistance. We propose an understanding of fatphobia from six structuring pillars, interrelated and indissociable: 1. Pathologizing; 2. Access and accessibility; 3. Animalization; 4. Blaming; 5. Aesthetic pressure; and 6. Language and representation. By employing the concept of celebrity-resistance (Carneiro; Simões, 2021; Simões; Carneiro, 2022) we think of how certain contemporaneous public figures align themselves with social minorities when they take a stand against discrimination in the public sphere. Our corpus of study was made by an event-based selection and of different materials (online articles, TV programs, music videos, comments on YouTube and on Instagram). In light of this, we conceptualized our “Metodologia Holofote” (“Spotlight Methodology”, in a free translation) based on a pragmatist (Quéré, 2018; França, 2018; França; Simões, 2020b; Simões, 2009, 2013) and an intersectional approach (Crenshaw, 2002; Carrera, 2021a, 2021b; Akotirene, 2021; Collins; Bilge, 2021). This methodology comes from theories, concepts and discussions related to this research. In our study, we use the spotlight theme to reflect on fatphobia, the intersectional spotlight to approach other oppression that emerge from the public images of Preta Gil and Thais Carla, and the pragmatist spotlight to emphasize the values these celebrities show and those against which they adopt a position, thus activating a dimension of resistance. The results of this study show how each celebrity develops strategies in front of the oppression, among them the construction of images of resignification thus evidencing the importance of the symbolic dimension in the fight against prejudice. Moreover, Preta Gil and Thais Carla’s actions mobilize resistance-values, such as body diversity, gender equality, racial equality, which tell us about who we are as a society and who we can become. Other values, however, such as wealth, luxury, ostentation, and meritocracy, highlight the market orientation of these public figures, something intrinsic to how they act, which reveals an ambivalence in the configuration of celebrities-resistance.