O corpo limpo, um estudo sobre a construção social do corpo feminino na contemporaneidade

Abstract

This work is a qualitative research of ethnographic nature in the city of Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul (RS), in the year 2019. Its purpose is to analyze and make a reflection on the notion and relationship that women Cisgender women have their bodies, their constructions, their body care, notions of hygiene and beauty through the culture of female hair removal. I seek to report the education of female bodies through the practice of hair removal, since the adolescence of girls, as well as in the following stages. I discuss how women present their bodies in their social and intimate relationships, and bring the work and techniques used by epilators as a type of body technique. The technique analyzed is the professional method of hair removal with hot wax / pan or Spanish method. My reflection seeks to understand how female hair removal gained space in society, especially from the twentieth century with the advent of industrialization that led to the insertion of many women in the labor market. Depilation has been going on for centuries and historically leaves a mark on female culture in which it is present in the lives of many women to this day. However, it is necessary to understand the multiple interests for this culture, above all, its meanings, its corporeality, its relation to the construction of femininity, which differ according to time and culture. To make this reflection possible, we must first understand what Hair Removal is, its differences as well as its meanings. From the interviews with the clients, I could observe that the hair removal showed not only as the act of removing the body hair, but as part of the culture over time, having its own logic according to the stages of life. a woman. Still I will explain each method of hair removal in contemporary women's culture and the most used, the most accomplished amateur and professional techniques, as well as report on the work of the "epilator", this female figure who attend the salon or at the residence. This job that requires technical skills also demands emotional skills, because it is in face-to-face care that epilators often build their bonds of trust and friendship according to reports. For this, eight women who were adept at waxing with hot pot wax were interviewed. The results turned out to be a complex mix of notions of beauty, hygiene and sensations that women call a "clean body."