Eu não sou uma mulher: perspectivas lésbicas sobre a família estrutural a partir dos estudos críticos do discurso

Abstract

This thesis addresses the theme of family, a relevant institution in many people’s lives, but at the same time so controversial, especially for minority groups such as the LGBTQIAP+ population, which places it among the groups that most violate the community, symbolically and materially. Associated with a cis-hetero-patriarchal-monogamous-christian formation, the analysis of this institution is developed from the reality and existence of lesbian relationships, based on lesbian perspectives, reports and narratives. The general objective was to investigate, through these reports and narratives, the configuration of the discourse on the structural family, also called traditional family, considering the (re)production of violence against them, their femininities, transfemininities and masculinities, and the universe of femininity in which they participate. This research also sought to carry out the 1) analysis of the representation of lesbians regarding the hegemonized family model, the 2) analysis of the counter-hegemonic modalities regarding the representation, the 3) analysis of the identification processes of the participants regarding the representation based on evaluations. Data analysis took place under the prism of theories of the human and social sciences, especially Critical Discourse Studies in its textually oriented approach and Studies of Gender, Sexualities and Feminisms. The results showed that this social group of lesbians evaluates and understands family, in general, based on statements with relational processes as being a group of people, nourished by care, affection and affinities, which may or may not have blood ties, and may present various formats, from single to multispecies, formed by friends, hetero/homo couples with or without children, grandparents and grandchildren, as well as other arrangements. They also modalized the need for the institution under analysis to be read in view of its diverse social dynamics, in an intersectional manner, considering categories such as race, class, territory, gender, since diversity is an unquestionable fact and such categories outline peculiarities and significant differences in the family experience. The idea of unstructured families raised the question about the discursiveness/representation of the single family model, the hegemonized one, which would be behind the processes of disqualification of the diverse family models, implicitly said to be “structureless”, when what exists are family structures, in the plural. This discourse of the single model, which creates the myth of family uniformity, is the driving force behind the State's hygienic practices and policies, which victimize other family formats. The participants also stated that they do not identify with the hegemonized family model, although many need to reproduce it. The reproduction of the heteronorm is seen as part of experiences lived by lesbians and experiences of being and existing as a lesbian family permeated by stigmas, oppressions, barriers, extrinsic and intrinsic daily difficulties, so that following the heteronorm becomes an attempt to live/survive, although it does not erase such stigmas, oppressions and barriers. It is also important to highlight the occurrence of the lexical item “borrowed”, for “borrowed sisters”. Such discursiveness points to the social construction of the roles of family members, “borrowed” members, people without blood relations. This logic presented once again undermines the idea of family as a biological construction. In addition to these, other results were also achieved.