Rita perigosa para a censura ditatorial: disputa de sentidos sobre o feminino em suas composições

Abstract

By observing how discourses about femininity are constituted, circulate, and are regulated by socio-historical conditions, (re)producing effects on gender relations and social practices, this study investigates the (re)production of meanings related to femininity, particularly concerning the female body, desire, and sexuality in Brazil during the Military Dictatorship. Unlike traditional historiographical approaches, which privilege institutional politics and, even within the artistic-cultural field, tend to focus on censorship as a direct response to criticism of the regime, this research proposes an analytical shift by considering artistic productions and censorship reports as discursive materialities capable of revealing mechanisms that regulate meanings about femininity. Grounded in the theoretical-methodological framework of Pêcheux’s Discourse Analysis, the study mobilizes concepts such as interdiscourse, ideology, discursive formation, metaphor, and the said and the unsaid, articulating archival research — with emphasis on reports from the Division of Censorship of Public Entertainment — with the analysis of Rita Lee’s compositions banned by the regime. The findings indicate that censorship prohibitions are not limited to sexual morality; they also target discursive movements that challenge gender stereotypes, the family institution, and regimes of containment imposed on the female body, sustained by discourses of moral propriety, thus rendering femininity visible as a site of dispute and ideological control. By articulating this analytical path with contemporary demands in Portuguese language teaching and text production, the study highlights the relevance of educating critical readers capable of understanding and working with the historicity of discourses and their effects on social life, especially in a context marked by the intensification of violence against women.