Mulheres (in)subordinadas : o empoderamento feminino e suas repercussões nas ocorrências de violência conjugal

Neste trabalho, explora-se o modo como a compreensão e o desempenho dos papéis de gênero se relacionam às ocorrências de violência (física, psicológica e sexual) dos maridos contra as esposas. Quatro mulheres que apresentaram queixa na Delegacia de Defesa da Mulher contra as agressões físicas perpetradas por seus parceiros e que conviviam com eles foram entrevistadas utilizando-se um roteiro de entrevista, que recolheu dados pessoais e informações a respeito das concepções sobre homem, mulher e relacionamento conjugal/afetivo. As entrevistas foram processadas pelo software Alceste, sendo a Análise de Conteúdo utilizada para complementar a análise. Os dados revelam a coexistência de concepções tradicionais de gênero com ações de insubordinação dessas mulheres (trabalho assalariado, amizades, questionamento da vida sexual). Esses aspectos, sinalizadores do empoderamento das mulheres, relacionam-se à agressividade dos parceiros que, excluídos dos debates feministas e buscando proteger sua masculinidade, usam a violência para suprimir as manifestações femininas de poder.

Meninos não choram? um estudo sobre fracasso escolar e jovens masculinidades no ensino médio

A temática do fracasso escolar tem sido muito discutida atualmente. As taxas de evasão e de reprovação escolar são significativas, em especial quando é considerado o sexo masculino. Investigar informações sobre o fracasso escolar, seja enquanto repetência ou enquanto abandono, possibilitou um olhar mais sensível a esse problema em nossa sociedade e possibilitou a reflexão sobre o quanto há para ser feito em relação ao ensino médio, pois, na medida em que se propõe a universalização do ensino fundamental, pouco tem se feito para garantir a continuação dos estudos a fim de que os alunos concluam a educação básica. Assim, partindo de estudos e dados estatísticos que indicavam que os meninos tendem a fracassarem na escola, consideramos que seria possível supor que os significados atribuídos por esses jovens a evasão possam estar relacionados ao seu tornar-se homem. Desta forma a questão central de nossa investigação foi: Em que medida o processo de constituição da masculinidade de jovens homens influenciam ou interferem no fracasso escolar? Questionávamos como jovens do sexo masculino, que já abandonaram a escola durante a etapa do Ensino Médio, significam a sua ou suas história (s) de abandono escolar e em que medida os significados atribuídos por esses jovens à evasão escolar são relacionados ao processo de constituição de suas masculinidades. Adotamos as categorias Gênero e Juventude para compor a investigação sobre o fracasso de jovens do sexo masculino que evadiram e regressaram a escola. O objetivo de nosso estudo foi analisar a relação que jovens homens traçam entre a constituição de suas masculinidades e o fracasso escolar. Utilizamos entrevistas com 12 jovens do sexo masculino, 7 que haviam evadido e retornaram a escola e 5 que estão evadidos. E realizamos um grupo focal com o grupo que regressou. A partir das informações obtidas nas entrevistas e no grupo focal, podemos inferir que a questão da masculinidade influencia a evasão escolar destes meninos, uma vez que se relaciona, dentre outros com o aspecto da independência, da responsabilidade e da resistência ao modelo adotado pela escola atual, na qual se espera que os sujeitos sejam vistos apenas como aluno, sendo esquecido o fato de serem jovens.

“Somos ensinados a pensar em sexo”: Representações Sociais de Masculinidades e de Amor em Travestis Homens Gays e Homens Heterossexuais

Estudos realizados no campo das masculinidades mostraram que a adesão e identificação de determinados grupos a um conjunto de regras e comportamentos que definem o ser homem implicava em adoecimento e submissão a um regime que supostamente lhes oferece vantagens e poder. Compreender como diferentes grupos constituem-se em relação à divisão social sexual torna-se relevante principalmente se considerarmos sujeitos que fogem ao padrão que define modos de ser homem e ser mulher. Esta tese objetivou investigar as representações sociais de masculinidades e de amor de sujeitos com identidades de gênero e orientações sexuais diversas, especificamente: identificar e analisar representações sociais de masculinidade e amor de travestis, homens gays e homens heterossexuais; apreender experiências de preconceito e discriminação vividas em função da identidade de gênero e orientações sexuais. A pesquisa foi realizada em duas etapas: entrevistas semiestruturadas com 21 travestis; aplicação de questionários com questões abertas e fechadas em 52 homens gays, 40 homens heterossexuais e 39 travestis. Os dados coletados na primeira etapa foram submetidos aos procedimentos da análise de conteúdo categorial temática. O tratamento dos dados coletados na segunda etapa foi realizado através do software ALCESTE. Os homens heterossexuais representam a masculinidade a partir de uma perspectiva evolutiva, ancorada no discurso biológico e científico que descarta as influências da cultura na constituição dos sexos e identidades de gênero. Nos homens gays encontramos aproximações das representações dos sujeitos ao modelo da masculinidade hegemônica fortemente identificada à imagem do homem heterossexual, bem como elementos que ora apresentam aproximações, ora distanciamentos desse padrão. As travestis também utilizam elementos da ideia de masculinidade hegemônica para construção desta representação, objetivando-a na construção do modelo do homem forte e viril, sobre o qual não se identificam mas direcionam seu desejo. Os três grupos representam o amor como elemento estranho à masculinidade, posto que este é objeto que pertence à feminilidade. O amor distancia-se da construção da representação social de masculinidade de homens heterossexuais, é elemento estranho e conflituoso às representações dos homens gays e valor que corresponde a uma ética para o grupo de travestis. Nesse contexto, as experiências de preconceito e discriminação pouco modificam a elaboração das representações de heterossexuais; influenciam fortemente a construção da imagem de homem e mulher por onde homens gays e travestis alimentam suas identificações. Concluímos apostando na defesa da emergência de práticas e identidades sexo-diversas como artifícios potentes à desestabilização do padrão da dominação masculina para determinação de sexos e identidades.

Masculinidades e fatores sociais de risco para a saúde: um retrato nacional

O objetivo geral deste artigo é analisar os fatores de ordem social que influenciam a saúde dos homens portugueses, em particular os comportamentos que se associam à construção das masculinidades. Para satisfazer o objetivo da pesquisa proceder‑se‑á à análise de alguns indicadores estatísticos produzidos por fontes oficiais, de natureza amostral ou administrativa, como o INE ou o EUROSTAT. O modelo de masculinidade que emerge da análise dos indicadores nacionais apresentados remete para um ideário de género muito associado a estilos de vida e desempenho de profissões com impacto negativo na esperança média de vida dos homens portugueses. Tendo como referência as mulheres, destaca‑se no caso dos homens: maior taxa de acidentes de viação; consumo de álcool e tabaco mais acentuado e prematuro; mais mortes associadas ao consumo de drogas; mais mortes autoprovocadas intencionalmente; maior incidência da SIDA; maior número de acidentes de trabalho. ABSTRACT - The purpose of this article is to analyze the social factors that influence the health of Portuguese men, namely the behaviors that can be associated to the construction of masculinities. To satisfy this objective we will analyze some statistical indicators produced by official sources like INE or EUROSTAT. The model of masculinity that emerges from national indicators analysis is associated to behaviors and consumptions with a negative impact in Portuguese men health and life expectancy. In this article we highlight some of these behaviors: biggest rate of transport accidents; larger and early alcohol and tobacco consumption; more deaths associated to the consumption of drugs; more auto provoked deaths; bigger AIDS incidence; more occupational accidents.

Eastwards / westwards: which direction for gender studies in the 21st century?

Eastwards / Westwards: Which Direction for Gender Studies in the XXIst Century? is a collection of essays which focus on themes and methods that characterize current research into gender in Asian countries in general. In this collection, ideas derived from Gender Studies elsewhere in the world have been subjected to scrutiny for their utility in helping to describe and understand regional phenomena. But the concepts of Local and Global – with their discoursive productions – have not functioned as a binary opposition: localism and globalism are mutually constitutive and researchers have interrogated those spaces of interaction between the ‘self’ and the ‘other’, bearing in mind their own embeddedness in social and cultural structures and their own historical memory. Contributors to this collection provided a critical transnational perspective on some of the complex effects of the dynamics of cultural globalization, by exploring the relation between gender and development, language, historiography, education and culture. We have also given attention to the ideological and rhetorical processes through which gender identity is constructed, by comparing textual grids and patterns of expectation. Likewise, we have discussed the role of ethnography, anthropology, historiography, sociology, fiction, popular culture and colonial and post-colonial sources in (re)inventing old/new male/female identities, their conversion into concepts and circulation through time and space. This multicultural and trans-disciplinary selection of essays is totally written in English, fully edited and revised, therefore, it has a good potential for an immediate international circulation. This project may trace new paths and issues for discussion on what concerns the life, practices and narratives by and about women in Asia, as well as elsewhere in the present day global experience. Academic readership: Researchers, scholars, educators, graduate and post-graduate students, doctoral students and general non-fiction readers, with a special interest in Gender Studies, Asia, Colonial and Post-Colonial Literature, Anthropology, Cultural Studies, History, Historiography, Politics, Race, Feminism, Language, Linguistics, Power, Political and Feminist Agendas, Popular Culture, Education, Women’s Writing, Religion, Multiculturalism, Globalisation, Migration. Chapter summary: 1. “Social Gender Stereotypes and their Implication in Hindi”, Anjali Pande, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. This essay looks at the subtle ways in which gender identities are constructed and reinforced in India through social norms of language use. Language itself becomes a medium for perpetuating gender stereotypes, forcing its speakers to confirm to socially defined gender roles. Using examples from a classroom discussion about a film, this essay will highlight the underlying rigid male-female stereotypes in Indian society with their more obvious expressions in language. For the urban woman in India globalisation meant increased economic equality and exposure to changed lifestyles. On an individual level it also meant redefining gender relations and changing the hierarchy in man-­woman relationships. With the economic independence there is a heightened sense of liberation in all spheres of social life, a confidence to fuzz the rigid boundaries of gender roles. With the new films and media celebrating this liberated woman, who is ready to assert her sexual needs, who is ready to explode those long held notions of morality, one would expect that the changes are not just superficial. But as it soon became obvious in the course of a classroom discussion about relationships and stereotypes related to age, the surface changes can not become part of the common vocabulary, for the obvious reason that there is still a vast gap between the screen image of this new woman and the ground reality. Social considerations define the limits of this assertiveness of women, whereas men are happy to be liberal within the larger frame of social sanctions. The educated urban woman in India speaks in favour of change and the educated urban male supports her, but one just needs to scratch the surface to see the time tested formulae of gender roles firmly in place. The way the urban woman happily balances this emerging promise of independence with her gendered social identity, makes it necessary to rethink some aspects of looking at gender in a gradually changing, traditional society like India. 2. “The Linguistic Dimension of Gender Equality”, Alissa Tolstokorova, Kiev Centre for Gender Information and Education, Ukraine. The subject-matter of this essay is gender justice in language which, as I argue, may be achieved through the development of a gender-related approach to linguistic human rights. The last decades of the 20th century, globally marked by a “gender shift” in attitudes to language policy, gave impetus to the social movement for promoting linguistic gender equality. It was initiated in Western Europe and nowadays is moving eastwards, as ideas of gender democracy progress into developing countries. But, while in western societies gender discrimination through language, or linguistic sexism, was an issue of concern for over three decades, in developing countries efforts to promote gender justice in language are only in their infancy. My argument is that to promote gender justice in language internationally it is necessary to acknowledge the rights of women and men to equal representation of their gender in language and speech and, therefore, raise a question of linguistic rights of the sexes. My understanding is that the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights in 1996 provided this opportunity to address the problem of gender justice in language as a human rights issue, specifically as a gender dimension of linguistic human rights. 3. “The Rebirth of an Old Language: Issues of Gender Equality in Kazakhstan”, Maria Helena Guimarães, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal. The existing language situation in Kazakhstan, while peaceful, is not without some tension. We propose to analyze here some questions we consider relevant in the frame of cultural globalization and gender equality, such as: free from Russian imperialism, could Kazakhstan become an easy prey of Turkey’s “imperialist dream”? Could these traditionally Muslim people be soon facing the end of religious tolerance and gender equality, becoming this new old language an easy instrument for the infiltration in the country of fundamentalism (it has already crossed the boarders of Uzbekistan), leading to a gradual deterioration of its rich multicultural relations? The present structure of the language is still very fragile: there are three main dialects and many academics defend the re-introduction of the Latin alphabet, thus enlarging the possibility of cultural “contamination” by making the transmission of fundamentalist ideas still easier through neighbour countries like Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan (their languages belong to the same sub-group of Common Turkic), where the Latin alphabet is already in use, and where the ground for such ideas shown itself very fruitful. 4. “Construction of Womanhood in the Bengali Language of Bangladesh”, Raasheed Mahmood; University of New South Wales, Sydney. The present essay attempts to explore the role of gender-based language differences and of certain markers that reveal the status accorded to women in Bangladesh. Discrimination against women, in its various forms, is endemic in communities and countries around the world, cutting across class, race, age, and religious and national boundaries. One cannot understand the problems of gender discrimination solely by referring to the relationship of power or authority between men and women. Rather one needs to consider the problem by relating it to the specific social formation in which the image of masculinity and femininity is constructed and reconstructed. Following such line of reasoning this essay will examine the nature of gender bias in the Bengali language of Bangladesh, holding the conviction that as a product of social reality language reflects the socio-cultural behaviour of the community who speaks it. This essay will also attempt to shed some light on the processes through which gender based language differences produce actual consequences for women, who become exposed to low self-esteem, depression and systematic exclusion from public discourse. 5. “Marriage in China as an expression of a changing society”, Elisabetta Rosado David, University of Porto, Portugal, and Università Ca’Foscari, Venezia, Italy. In 29 April 2001, the new Marriage Law was promulgated in China. The first law on marriage was proclaimed in 1950 with the objective of freeing women from the feudal matrimonial system. With the second law, in 1981, values and conditions that had been distorted by the Cultural Revolution were recovered. Twenty years later, a new reform was started, intending to update marriage in the view of the social and cultural changes that occurred with Deng Xiaoping’s “open policy”. But the legal reform is only the starting point for this case-study. The rituals that are followed in the wedding ceremony are often hard to understand and very difficult to standardize, especially because China is a vast country, densely populated and characterized by several ethnic minorities. Two key words emerge from this issue: syncretism and continuity. On this basis, we can understand tradition in a better way, and analyse whether or not marriage, as every social manifestation, has evolved in harmony with Chinese culture. 6. “The Other Woman in the Portuguese Colonial Empire: The Case of Portuguese India”, Maria de Deus Manso, University of Évora, Portugal. This essay researches the social, cultural and symbolic history of local women in the Portuguese Indian colonial enclaves. The normative Portuguese overseas history has not paid any attention to the “indigenous” female populations in colonial Portuguese territories, albeit the large social importance of these social segments largely used in matrimonial and even catholic missionary strategies. The first attempt to open fresh windows in the history of this new field was the publication of Charles Boxer’s referential study about Women in lberian Overseas Expansion, edited in Portugal only after the Revolution of 1975. After this research we can only quote some other fragmentary efforts. In fact, research about the social, cultural, religious, political and symbolic situation of women in the Portuguese colonial territories, from the XVI to the XX century, is still a minor historiographic field. In this essay we discuss this problem and we study colonial representations of women in the Portuguese Indian enclaves, mainly in the territory of Goa, using case studies methodologies. 7. “Heading East this Time: Critical Readings on Gender in Southeast Asia”, Clara Sarmento, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal. This essay intends to discuss some critical readings of fictional and theoretical texts on gender condition in Southeast Asian countries. Nowadays, many texts about women in Southeast Asia apply concepts of power in unusual areas. Traditional forms of gender hegemony have been replaced by other powerful, if somewhat more covert, forms. We will discuss some universal values concerning conventional female roles as well as the strategies used to recognize women in political fields traditionally characterized by male dominance. Female empowerment will mean different things at different times in history, as a result of culture, local geography and individual circumstances. Empowerment needs to be perceived as an individual attitude, but it also has to be facilitated at the macro­level by society and the State. Gender is very much at the heart of all these dynamics, strongly related to specificities of historical, cultural, ethnic and class situatedness, requiring an interdisciplinary transnational approach.

A publicidade e um novo género masculino

Este estudo tem como principal objetivo identificar e compreender quais os valores de masculinidade que são representados na publicidade impressa. Para levar este estudo a cabo foram analisados os anúncios contidos na revista impressa Men’s Health, na edição do mês de setembro, desde o ano de 2002 a 2012, num total de 174 anúncios. A escolha da revista Men’s Health prende-se com o facto de ser uma revista dirigida ao segmento masculino. Foram traçados objetivos para o estudo em que todos eles convergem para um ponto em comum: identificação e compreensão dos valores de masculinidade presentes na publicidade em revistas dirigidas ao segmento masculino. Após a construção de uma grelha de análise foi desenvolvida uma análise extensiva, realizada aos diferentes anúncios e uma análise semiótica para que desta forma possamos ter uma abordagem qualitativa e quantitativa. Por fim, na conclusão e discussão dos resultados identificámos os valores de masculinidade que mais se encontram presentes nos anúncios dirigidos ao segmento masculino e posicionamos esses valores num esquema com o objetivo de conseguirmos classificar a forma de masculinidade refletida nos anúncios.

Retratos de uma musa do século XXI: a figura feminina na GQ Portugal

Relatório de estágio apresentado à Escola Superior de Comunicação Social como parte dos requisitos para obtenção de grau de mestre em Jornalismo.

The impact of national cultures on international marketing strategy and subsidiary performance of portuguese SME’s

The dynamic of the international business and its multidimensional nature requires the understanding of the complexities of different contexts dictated by cultural differences between countries. The purpose of this paper is to study, in depth howsmall and medium-sized companies develop their international marketing mix strategy in their overseas subsidiaries. We use the theoretical construct of Hofstede (1980, 1991) in the dimensions of Power Distance (PD), Uncertainty Avoidance (UA), Individualism (IND), Masculinity (MASC) and Long-Term Orientation (LTO) to assess the cross cultural differences between countries and the business practices to analyze the adaptation or standardization of the international marketing mix strategy of foreign Portuguese subsidiaries. Ourstudy uses an exploratoryand qualitative methodology. We conducted semi-structured interviews in order to achieve a good understanding ofinternational marketing mix strategy of four companies from different sectors. Our results show that the national cultural differences have great influence in the marketing strategy of the subsidiary. The business practices adjustments in the subsidiary company that proved to be necessary conditions for their performance are conducted by the products augmented offerings concerning the characteristics of the product, design and brand name in order to meet the requirements and specificities of the host country of the subsidiary.

Cultural adaptation of websites: a comparative study of portuguese and dutch corporate websites

Master Thesis Presented at Instituto de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto for obtaining the Master’s degree in Digital Marketing under the supervision of Professor José de Freitas Santos

Representações Masculinas Afro-americanas no Cinema: do Filme Liberal de Hollywood a “Boyz n the Hood”

O objecto de estudo deste trabalho é a construção da identidade masculina afro-americana, e representação desta no cinema liberal de Hollywood. Isolam-se três momentos de particular relevo: o período do cinema mudo antes da Primeira Guerra Mundial, os anos 1960-70 e por fim, a década de 1990. Traçar-se-á um percurso analítico que examina obras-chave da história do cinema comercial de Hollywood bem como manifestações do cinema independente afro-americano entabulando um diálogo permanente com o contexto histórico e social, nomeadamente a luta pelos direitos civis, a afirmação do Black Power, traduzida cinematograficamente na Blaxploitation, para finalmente se concentrar em Boyz n the Hood escolhido como sintomático de um impulso regenerativo das representações masculinas afro-americanas, sob forte ataque dos media populares nas últimas décadas do século XX.

‘Wooden Man’? : Masculinities in the Work of J. M. Coetzee (Boyhood, Youth and Summertime)

In seeking to advance the possibility of justice, gender and postcolonial studies have argued for the importance of the study of masculinities, through the acknowledgment that a richer understanding of such gendered formations may provide the basis for recognition of the Other and that, left uncriticised, such formations may be continuously delineated by the reproduction of systems of domination. The current study finds as its object the representations of masculinities in J. M. Coetzee’s Boyhood (1997), Youth (2002) and Summertime (2009). As works of transition in terms of Coetzee’s oeuvre - post-apartheid and post-Disgrace - the trilogy provides an account of the development of a man through several stages of life. While portraying the tensions of different geographical and cultural locations, such as apartheid South Africa and the London of the Sixties, the trilogy articulates the various norms that impact in the formation of gender, particularly of masculinities, through a complex system of power relations. The adherence to such norms is never linear, as the trilogy provides imaginative accounts of the contradictions that assist in the formulation of gender, depicting both the allure and the terror that constitute hegemonic masculinity. Located in the intersection of gender and postcolonial studies, the present study is based on the works by Raewyn Connell on masculinities. Animated by such a critical framework, the main research question of the present study is whether the trilogy advances a notion of masculinity that differs from the traditional rigid model, that is, whether there is resistance to hegemonic masculinity and what the spaces inhabited by the subaltern are. It is suggested that the trilogy presents the reader with instances of resistance to normative formulations of masculinity, by contrasting domination with the possibility of justice, and advancing an understanding of the often fatal consequences of gender norms to one’s sense of being in the world.

Homicídio nas relações de intimidade: a construção mediática do crime em homens e mulheres

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Psicologia

Discriminação de género e construção das masculinidades nos contextos de trabalho: o caso da engenharia civil

Dissertação de mestrado em Gestão de Recursos Humanos

Estudo da influência cultural no Design de Calçado

Dissertação de mestrado em Design e Marketing