Las bien portadas: Female representations on the falangist women's press Medina (1941-1945)

• Grant number: 24/19120-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 01, 2025
• End date: December 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Modern and Contemporary History
• Principal Investigator: Francisco Carlos Palomanes Martinho
• Grantee: Gabriela Rocha de Oliveira
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The proposed research project is situated within the field of the History of Gender Relations. It is based on the empirical analysis of Medina magazine (1941-1945), edited by the Sección Femenina of the Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las J.O.N.S. The study aims to analyze the discourses present in this women's magazine, identify the female representations conveyed in its pages, and understand how these were disseminated. The hypothesis we are working from is that the magazine presented a discourse that naturalized gender roles, valuing the Spanish feminine essence of submission, while teaching readers how to behave in Francoist Spain and, above all, how to be women. Thus, more than legitimizing the patriarchal system, the archetypes of women presented in Medina reinforced Francoist victory by opposing the representations of republican women ("rojas") and by promoting the values and aesthetics of the new State. However, the models of femininity propagated by Medina encountered tensions beyond their pages, as the reality of poverty and post-Civil War reconstruction demanded, particularly from poor women, work beyond the domestic sphere. To verify this hypothesis, we will analyze the discourse of the editorials and special articles in the 247 issues of the magazine, aiming to identify how women were portrayed in this publication and to determine whether these representations conform to one or more models of women throughout its four years of publication. By the end of the research, we hope not only to confirm or refute the initial hypothesis, but also to contribute to a broader understanding of the expected role of women in authoritarian regimes and to highlight the contradictions that permeate these discourses in practice.