FROM ‘CABRA DA PESTE’ TO POSSIBLE MASCULINITIES: CULTURAL REPERTOIRES OF YOUNG STUDENTS FROM THE AGRESTE REGION OF PERNAMBUCO

Abstract

This article discusses the ways in which masculinities are (co)constructed among young people from the Pernambuco countryside. The reflections presented are an excerpt from a larger study. The objective here was to identify and understand the (re)productions and negotiations of cultural repertoires about masculinities in the school context (co)produced by high school youth, identifying both the permanence and the tensions in relation to the normative model of the virile man, resistant to showing himself emotionally. Based on Social Constructionism and on discursive practices and the production of meanings in everyday life, the study adopted a qualitative approach, with two conversation circles held in a state public school, complemented by observations in daily life and records in research diaries. Focusing on the analytical category “Cabra da peste” and its subcategories: Cultural halter, Mango tree of prejudices and Family dragnet. The results indicate that young people, although they mostly mobilize hegemonic discourses of masculinity, also express discomfort, silence and resistance in the face of imposed expectations. School appears as an ambiguous space: sometimes it reinforces gender stereotypes, sometimes it allows the emergence of alternative narratives. The study contributes to the debate on youth, gender and subjectivity, by showing that traditional models of being a man continue to act as symbolic restraints, but are also being strained based on the experiences and daily discursive practices of young students themselves.