Família, gênero e sexualidade: uma análise do discurso de pais de meninos e meninas

Abstract

The family represents a reference institution both in the social order and in the development of its members. It is commonly characterized as the first nucleus of socialization of subjects, having a strong relevance in the constitution of their identities and subjectivities. Often it is signified as the locus of affection, love and acceptance, but the relationships established within it are subject to hierarchical formations, which creates spaces for the emergence (or maintenance) of domination and violence, often supported by gender norms. In the midst of human relations, including family relations, are the discourses, supporting certain practices, norms and ideologies, which mediate behaviors and produce meanings, including sexuality and gender. In view of these questions, this study sought to identify some of the meanings produced on gender and sexuality in the family context, from two perspectives: in the study one identifying the Discursive Formations on motherhood and fatherhood and in the study two identifying the Discursive Formations on the feminine and the masculine. This is a qualitative, exploratory and cross-sectional research. Five heterosexual couples, cohabiting for at least ten years and having at least one son and one daughter between four and sixteen years old, participated in the study. Data collection was done through two semi-structured interview scripts, one for the individual application with the spouses and one for the joint application. All the interviews were performed the same day, one after the other, starting with the individual ones, from the order chosen by the participants, and ending with the application with the couple. The interviews were audiographed and transcribed in full. Subsequently, the data were organized and analyzed in the Pêcheux Discourse Analysis. It was found that the participants accentuate in their discourses differences between the men / father and the women / mother, and these differences are pointed out by them, directly or indirectly, as directives that guide the division of tasks, the familiar routine, their parenting practices and how they educate their children. This differentiation is based on a historical erasure of the social construction of gender stereotypes, traversing it into something given, natural and biological. In this way, men / fathers and women / mothers fit the roles previously stipulated in the current Ideological Formation (heteronormative, binary and male domination) responding not to a biological condition, but to the Imaginary Formations that situate them discursively, limiting their possibilities of being and guide their identities, practices and choices. The constant reiteration of traditional discourses about sexuality and gender in the family contributes to the crystallization of norms that favor the relations of domination and exploitation, since the family is responsible for ensuring that the subjects are adequate to the Ideological Formation in which they are inserted. Finally, the differentiation between the masculine and the feminine plays a crucial role in sustaining the models of capitalist production, since it restricts subjects to the activities designated by the social (and sexual) division of labor, but when it is crossed by language and ideology, So that they internalize these values and practices from the point of view of choice or the natural, maintaining the illusion of autonomy about themselves and about the discursive production itself.