The female body as a tool of feminist protest and subversion to machismo in the images of the meme “Bela, Recatada e do Lar” (Beautiful, Modest and Housewife)

Abstract

The meme “Bela, Recatada e do Lar” began to circulate randomly after Veja magazine carried out a report on April 18, 2016, about the first lady at that time, Marcela Temer, sharing as compliments and positive attributes the fact of her being “beautiful, modest and a housewife”. In few days it became a powerful counter-hegemonic media tool to face the narrative created by the magazine about the attributes of femininity. This article aims to analyze the symbolic constructions that allow the expansion of this meme. For this, we will interpret, through a symbolic expression analysis, based on the literature about gender, imagery memes concentrated on the Tumblr profile www.belarecatadaedolar.tumblr.com. The criterion of choosing this network is motivated by the randomness of the contingency of a virtual narrative spontaneous creation, since all the models of bodies that are in this social network were sent voluntarily by women who sought to demystify the image of the ideal woman as the one that presents the triad of adjectives narrated by the magazine. In the analysis, it is identified that technological advances and network feminism present a new logic in feminist thinking and acting, and the imagery memes analyzed become a faster and large-scale dissemination tool for its high degree of replicability, having as main model the representation of a emancipatory and plural body-flag (GOMES; SORJ, 2014). The new virtual environment where the memes are located aims to debate issues of the feminist movement such as: the public/private relationship, right to the body, behavioral changes and resistance to patterns defined as being reserved spaces and associated with men.