“Boys don’t cry”: uma análise da (des)construção da masculinidade no emo

Abstract

This dissertation aims to develop an analysis around how emo — as a subcultural phenomenon that gained prominence in the early 2000s — contributed to a subversion of normative terms dictating male behavior in contemporary western society, offering an alternative possibility for both emotional and visual expression to the normative model. Focusing on the Brazilian context, a foucauldian discursive analysis is proposed for the discourses constructed by two of the main media outlets in the country during the period of emo's greatest visibility, spanning from 2006 to 2013: the first, discussed in the first chapter, is the discourse produced by open television channels Rede Globo, SBT, and Rede Bandeirantes, which created journalistic materials about emo during this period. This discourse is permeated by narratives that devalue emo as a subcultural movement, placing them in the position of "difference" in the Brazilian popular imagination. The second discourse is internal, produced by the emos themselves, through the internet — which, at this time, became widespread among young people and adolescents as the main means of communication. The chosen materials were three blogs that remained active from 2008 to 2013. Functioning as a kind of open diary, the blogs were a virtual space where emos could express themselves less restrictedly, preserve their anonymity, and share experiences with their peers while constructing their identity around these identifications. What emerges from these analyses is how the discourse and definitions of what emo is were primarily produced in virtual spaces and later interpreted and re-signified by television channels, but also the inequality between the discourse of the stigmatized and that which imposes the stigma. Therefore, the existence of phenomena like emo serves to highlight the fragility of historically constructed normative masculinities. There is a history of youth subcultures permeated by deviations in gender and sexuality representations, and emo is one that cuts across these fields and reveals the need to revisit the patriarchal structures that underpin our social system.