Corpos e identidades ursinas: um estudo de representações sociais

Abstract

Throughout the history of mankind, the body has had a central spot in the relationships among individuals and groups, being the subject of discourses, norms and standardization in the most varied areas of knowledge (e.g.: medicine, arts, sports, philosophy, etc). Nowadays, it is possible to notice strict norms that dictate that a desirable body would be a white thin smooth (hairless) one. However, some groups that do not adequate to these criteria subvert this logic, valuing bodies that don‟t fit these standards and that aren‟t socially valued. That is the case of the “bears”, a group composed by sexually diverse men who have bigger, heavier and hairier bodies when compared to the hegemonic standard of body image among the LGBTQ+ community. The aim of this research was to comprehend how the identity processes of the Brazilian bears are influenced by the social representations about the body within this community. By using an exploratory-descriptive design, the research was realized through an online survey. Altogether, 333 participants were recruited through social media and answered the survey about social representations regarding the body and the bear identity. The analysis of the data collected was realized through descriptive and relational statistics, content analysis and lexical analysis with the aid from the software IRaMuTeQ. The results obtained show that the participants who had higher scores in the Group Identification Scale also had a higher level of body satisfaction. It was observed as well that the representation field that involves being a bear has elements of appreciation towards bodies that do not follow the hegemonic standard, mainly anchored on the sexuality and the eroticizing of the bear body. Therefore, the construction of a bear identity shows it is directly linked to the image of the classic bear, although it still suffers strong influence from the hegemonic beauty standards.