Jovens mulheres e processos de subjetivação: modos de resistir e de se (re) inventar

Abstract

In recent decades, we have witnessed profound crises produced by a decaying capitalist system, in its financialized and neoliberal phase. Linked to this phenomenon, we have observed the rise of the far right, which sustains a conservative political wave around the world. Discourses on gender and sexuality have gained significant prominence in this scenario,becoming a field of profound disputes. In this context, young women have emerged as abarrier of resistance to the advances of a conservative logic, which threatens the advancement of policies aimed at marginalized populations. Thus, this thesis aims to discuss and problematize the forms of subjectivation of young high school students, permeated by heterogeneous discourses of gender and sexuality, constructed within the tensions of the contemporary world. Inspired by Foucauldian and feminist studies, and based on the theoretical precepts of gender performativity developed by Judith Butler, the Narrative Interview methodology was used. Twenty-one interviews were conducted with young women from the Cariri region of Ceará, enrolled in high school in the city of Juazeiro do Norte, Ceará. From the main analytical units, which emerged from the analysis of the empirical material produced, it is reported how feminist and conservative discourses penetrate the experiences o fyoung women, solidifying movements that contest gender and sexuality norms, perceived as oppressive. Reference to subjective constructions is often guided by the activation of identity politics agendas. However, some narratives encounter impasses created by such discourses,when they are unrelated to other operators of inequality. Therefore, the thesis is defended that the processes of subjectivation of young women occur in a fluid and contradictoryzone,where discourses of gender and sexuality operate, in many circumstances, inopposite directions, highlighting emancipatory limitationst. In this sense, there is a permanent and unstable movement, sustained by discourses of sexual identity and diversity, of contestation and affirmation of heteronormity. Although it moves bodies toward a field of intelligibility, it has not guaranteed a considerable portion—such as Black and poor women—the necessary impetus to achieve their status as human. It is concluded that the integration of struggle agendas that encompass the demands of women with diverse experiences is urgent andnecessary.