OS SENTIMENTOS E AS REPRESENTAÇÕES SOCIAIS SOBRE GORDOFOBIA ENTRE PRÉ-ADOLESCENTES NO CONTEXTO ESCOLAR DE SIDROLÂNDIA / MS

Abstract

The research deals with fatphobia in the school context and aimed to identify the social representations and feelings of pre-adolescents, who study in public schools in Sidrolândia/ MS, about fatphobia, showing whether prejudice is related to issues of gender and whether there is influence of the media in the dissipation of prejudice. The epistemic approach is anchored to the concepts of Theory of Social Representations, from the perspective of Moscovici and his collaborators, among other authors. This is a qualitative research, carried out from a questionnaire that was answered by 58 students and three focus groups with 16 students enrolled in the 5th year of elementary school in three public schools in the municipality of SidrolândiaMS, chosen for their location, contemplating a center school, a peripheral school and an indigenous community. The data were classified based on Bardin's Content Analysis and resulted in six categories: 1. The “skinny is more of the hour”: Opinions of pre-adolescents regarding the body model - in which they analyze the feeling of sadness and dissatisfaction as for the body self-perception of pre-adolescents, 2. I suffered, I know how it is, I almost cut myself, due to depression: fatphobia at school - in which the experiences of prejudice due to physical structure are revealed, culminating in depression and low self-esteem, 3. Everyone makes fun of me at school: bullying, violence at school and difficulties in school activities - it was possible to evince the consequences of prejudice in the students' life and academic development and physical structure as the main reason for prejudiced actions, 4. Because there is woman who does not accept a fat man: gender and fatphobia - in which she exposes the power of fatphobia under the female body, 5. Superman X Cinderella: influence of the media on the self-perception of pre-adolescents - pointing out the role of the media in the formation of selfimage and the spread of fatphobia and 6. Neither fat nor thin abracadabra- which signals the ideal model nowadays. It is considered that the body is seen as a reference when seeking wellbeing, professional, personal, loving and social success, a manipulable object and of possible control, with that, those who do not fit this statement, are subjected to judgments and discrimination. Pre-adolescents indicated the lean body as the best body model, showing dissatisfaction with their physical appearance and anchoring fatphobia to the representations arising from bullying that makes the school a hostile and insecure environment, which directly affects their self-esteem and their school development. It was revealed that, although men are under coercion due to their body structure, women are still the main target of fatphobia, in which the media constantly praise the thin body as the ideal, acting implicitly and effectively in the formation of self-perception through its characters that inspire individuals to seek the new socially established body model, in this case, the body worked in the gym, which generates anguish and suffering for those who do not meet these requirements