Cultura dos corpos contemporâneos: práticas corporais e representações sociais de muklheres velhas soteropolitanas.

Abstract

The body of young elderly women in contemporary Brazilian culture is considered a distinctive capital to be conquered. In this process, the discourse about perfect health, the practice of physical activity, the performance of functional training, fashion, the use of nutritional products, dietary practices, the use of pharmaceutical products, hormonal replacements, the performance of aesthetic procedures and surgical, quality of life and longevity incorporate meanings of youth, strength, beauty, physical appearance, esthetics, youthfulness and rejuvenation of bodies. Based on these assumptions, this thesis aims to understand the processes of construction of social representations of the bodies of young elderly women (aged between 60 and 75 years), as a redefinition of their cultural identity. This research investigates the social representations of seven young elderly women about their bodies. The methodology used for this study was ethnography, with emphasis on qualitative research. We use the following resources, methods, techniques and tools: formal conversations, ethnographic observation, participant observation, individual interviews, in-depth interviews and questionnaires, structured and semi-structured interviews, field diary, questionnaires with open and closed questions, the audio resource of cell phone called “Voice Recording”, phone calls and also WhatsApp and Google Meet applications. As a result, the investigation reveals that bodily practices, fashion, proper nutrition, dietary re-education, the use of anti-aging cosmetics and all body culture from the ethnographic observations, narratives and analyzes undertaken in our study allow us to state that the ways and lifestyles of the culture of the body, in Brazil, adopted by these elderly young women in contemporary culture are marked by a logic of consumption. The social representations of their bodies in youth are understood under the following aspects: visibility, beauty, youth, physical well-being, health, absence of disease, vanity, strength, joy, the game of seduction , thinness and extreme concern with physical appearance. The social representations and identities that young elderly women have of the bodies in aging bring out experiences related to the emergence of diseases, physical dependence, care for existing diseases, lack of sex, lack of sexual appetite, lack of sensuality and lack of visibility. Young elderly women believe that, in old age, they have an “old phobia” body. All the elderly women showed resignation with the body in the process of aging, however, from the point of view of gain, none reported that they prefer the body of today, the old body, to the young body of the past.