BODY OF THE WOMAN/WOMAN’S BODY IN ALTERNATIVE JOURNALISTIC DISCOURSE: BETWEEN TENSIONS AND INTERDICTIONS

Abstract

The text analyzes how capitalist patriarchal discourse discursively constructs female bodies, focusing on labor, health, and sexuality. Drawing on Materialist Discourse Analysis, the study investigates the feminist alternative newspapers Brasil Mulher and Nós Mulheres, which circulated during the 1970s and 1980s. These publications resisted state censorship under the military dictatorship (1964-1985) by revealing repressive practices from the so-called “years of lead” (1968-1974). During this time, the State-backed by elite sectors-enforced population control policies that infringed on reproductive rights and undermined bodily autonomy. The analysis underscores the importance of these newspapers in confronting the violence and silencing that the authoritarian regime and patriarchal structures directed at female bodies. It also emphasizes the lasting effects of those violations. The fight for bodily self-determination remains urgent amid persistent institutional oppression shaped by socio-historical forces.

Keywords:
Materialist Discourse Analysis; Alternative journalistic discourse; Feminist newspaper; Discursive body; Woman