The male and female body perception through the children's point of view: an experience in the classroom

Abstract

The elementary schools of our Brazilian educational system are shrouded with tabooed and controversial themes, concerning to the matters of sexuality. The beauty standards and the matters of current heteronormative genders in our society form in children stereotyped behavioral models, stimulated by the most diverse social and (in) formative environments. This study's objective is to investigate how children within the age of nine to eleven years old, enrolled in a public school in the state of Sao Paulo, perceive the male and female bodies found in various magazines. Therefore, the research consisted in an empirical investigation with analytical and descriptive nature, through qualitative approach. The data collection used for the analysis expounded on an activity proposal presented by the professor, that consisted in the selection of various images of males and females contained in several magazines, where the children are responsible for electing those images though personal criteria. In fine lines, this activity allowed a discussion centered on the sexuality and gender relations fields, because a space was granted for the students' opinions and perceptions, in this topic, to be heard, mediated by the professor. However, there was no interference to incline the children's response, but rather to conduct the conversation in a reflexive and respectful way. The result revealed the incorporation of social stereotypes incorporated by the children, from the choices they made, to the well-defined characteristics between the images and the functions performed by men and women; their age, career and physicals characteristics in fields almost always opposite. This identification was evidenced by both the selected images and the reason why the children chose the images. In this way, we have considered the relevance of this study because it provides a reflection on the children's perception of beauty and the exercised social roles in our society, stimulated and identified through magazine images and the speeches contained in their expressions. Such speeches revealed the naturalization of the binary and unequal gender roles attributed to men and women, as well as the stereotypical gender standards connected to vanity, consented to women, but not to men. The physical features were also identified as stereotypical, both the general (thin, tall, blond) and the specific to different fields (short hair for men, long for women). In that same way, clothes and accessories that were observed by the children were also distinguished between the male and female usage. Facing such evidences, it was confirmed the incorporation of concepts and preconceptions, historically rooted in Western society, those that which end up being associated with the biological function that differs men from women and that are crystalized as incontestable truths. The omission of these debates in the classroom camouflages the necessity of debating and deconstructing them, creating the illusion that they are irrelevant and inopportune in light of the silence or prohibition that are bestowed upon them. In contrast, proposals like this one unfold how clear this idea is, creating a relation of the power that perpetuates the gender inequality.