Análise discursiva da autoimagem corporal de mulheres em diferentes idades: espelho, espelho meu!...

Abstract

This thesis aims to identify how it is presented the body self- image in women of different ages through a discursive analysis. The were selected 12 Brazilian women from Minas Gerais, living in Belo Horizonte, with higher education, every 3 of them belonging to the age group as follows: from 21 to 30, 31 to 40, 41 to 50 and 51 to 60 years old. All the participants answered a questionnaire with questions related to the identification data and participated in a semi-structured interview, which involved themes about self-image, fashion, beauty and media. This interview was recorded for further analysis and transcription of data. The participants were submitted to two tests: a questionnaire about body satisfaction (Body Shape Questionnaire, CORDAS; CASTILHO, 1994), authenticated and adapted to Portuguese by Di Pietro (2001), and the Silhouette Scale (STUNKARD; SORENSEN; SCHLUSINGER, 1983). The discussions of the participants have been analysed from lexical analysis of command in attitude and engagement, settled in the System Appraisal, offered by Martin and White (2005), and from the concept of ethos offered by Maingueneau (1987). The discoursive data were contrasted with the obtained data through quantitative tests, as a result was defined the discursive ethos and the intended ethos, which every participant declared to intend. All these findings determined the level of satisfaction of body self-image, classified from creation of the categories: V y V y Unsatisfied. The findings of every participant, initially were compared with the findings of the participants of the same age, then, were compared the findings of participants with different age. The results showed that there were not significant differences in body self-image related to the varieties of the researched age group. What influenced the satisfaction of body self-images were the relations that women establish with themselves during their life, with the others and with the world. In other words, the satisfaction that women have in other areas of their lives culminates making it easier the satisfactions of their body self-images. On the other hand, appraisal analyses reveals itself from discursive lexical selections of women, the relations that they establish with their own bodies (discursive and intended ethos). The quantitative tests confirmed the discursive results. The body and the discourses are presented like semantic vectors which evidenced the constructed relations between the subject and the world.