O pessoal e o popular são políticos? : Casos de Família e o debate sobre violência doméstica no talk show

Abstract

The study aims to identify and discuss the strategies by which the popular talk show builds debates in society, specifically from the analysis of interactions in the Casos de Família (SBT) program editions discussing the theme of domestic violence against women. The object is analyzed from the theoretical pragmatist perspective, especially developed by Erving Goffman, which offers a basis for observing the subjects’ face to face interaction. This approach is adapted to an interactive situation mediated by TV, in which anonymous guests tell life stories to a host, an audience and a psychologist. Therefore, the concepts of performance, footing and framing have been operationalized methodologically to answer three central issues, respectively: (i) how does the program address violence through face-to-face representations, (ii) which positions related to violence are defended in the interaction, and (iii) what does the talk show understand and define as violence in its settings. The empirical research analyzes 14 complete editions of the program aired between 2013 and 2019. The results show that the program invests heavily in elements of the melodrama's cultural matrix, which influences the entire interaction situation on the stage. The performances are marked by the excess of verbal and non-verbal elements, in addition to other melodramatic resources such as polarization and schematization. The blaming discourse is supported by the neoliberal rhetoric, which celebrates the individuals’ free will at the expense of material and contextual conditions. Thinking in light of the concept of governmentality, the “bad” examples exposed in Casos de Família would be a “manual of good living”, which recommends to the public, particularly to women, how not to act. Despite the superficial and decontextualized frameworks of domestic violence, the program also hints at possible gains in the debate, such as the symbolic deconstruction of recurrent beliefs in relation to female practices and the meanings of conjugal union. The talk show gives the problem a name, qualifies it as violence and contributes to the dissemination of public reporting and victim assistance services.