The executive woman and the househusband in texts/discourses (re)produced by the brazilian media

cultural (re)significations?

Abstract

This article aims to analyze how the executive woman and the househusband figures are (re)produced in Brazilian media texts/discourses. Based on the Semiotics of Discourse, with emphasis on the operationalization of the concept of actor, explored together with the notions of enunciative praxis, form of life and cultural imaginary, the article organizes, synthesizes and discusses the results of two research studies, both aimed at understanding ongoing sociocultural transformations. The analysis highlights, in the constitution of the executive woman actor, the accumulation of thematic roles, since the referenced female figure is a successful professional, an exemplary mother, a dedicated wife and a well-groomed woman. She is, in other words, the mythical figure of the "superwoman", the result of the conflict between some ruptures and many permanences. In the constitution of the actor househusband, on the contrary, the dispersion of thematic roles, since the referenced male figure is only father, a father who, as an unemployed, liberal professional or self-employed, takes care of the children full time, acting as a kind of substitute for the wife/mother while she works in the formal market. Therefore, it is neither an "inversion" nor a "reconfiguration" of roles, practices and forms of life, but rather specific adjustments that only destabilize, without, however, breaking the old stereotypes around "being a man" and "being a woman".