Brazilian Woman in First Place: A Brief Study of the Image of the Brazilian Woman in Portuguese Generalist Magazines

Abstract

From the concept of visual identity that establishes the form as a determinant, the study looks at the human body as an object that can be designed and demonstrates that public people, especially actors, become objects of consumption built from a "project". Through these concepts, the study analyses images of two Brazilian actresses taken from two Portuguese generalist magazines and verifies the intention to attribute to the "brazilianness" of the represented actress characteristics that do not correspond to her persona. The concept of persona used is that of cinema in which the public imagination of the actor influences the construction of a certain character and this may be changed for each role of the actor, the persona is therefore a supporting actor in the composition of the character, but is also modified by it. The intertextuality related to the creation of the actor's persona leaked to other representations, including that of the woman, is the conductive line of the study. The work is the result of the author's doctoral thesis entitled As representações nas vossas cabeças: sobre o estereótipo da mulher brasileira que habita o imaginário português, defended at FBAUP in June 2016, oriented by Professor Heitor Alvelos and co-supervised by Prof. Luiz Antonio Luzio Coelho.