Abstract
This article interprets the statistics of aggressions against women (attesting to the persistence of this phenomenon) alongside the growing importance that this issue has assumed in Brazilian telenovelas in the last eighteen years. Taking violence to be constitutive of gender relations in Brazil (SAFFIOTTI 1994), the article aims to question what kinds of images and imaginaries of this violence circulates in the daily life of the country. The article establishes a dialogue between the conjuncture of violence and its representations in telenovelas, proposing a socio-cultural approach to media inspired by anthropology, and furthering a reflection that points to frames of intelligibility that define which women can (and in many cases must) suffer violence. The relativization and naturalization of various forms of disrespect and injury is present both within fictional narratives and in the national context.
Keywords:
Gender violence; National telenovelas; Sociocultural approach; Representation