Trajetória da Imprensa Lésbica no Brasil (1981-1995): uma história possível para (re)-pensar o jornalismo

Abstract

his dissertation aims at constituting a history of the Lesbian Press in Brazil between 1981 and 1995, in order to identify practices that may contribute to improving journalism. The selected period enabled the analysis of eleven titles. This work followed the principle that states that journalism participates in the social construction of reality, therefore interferes in how citizenship can be experienced. However, in the face of the so-called “crisis of journalism”, whose dimensions vary, this mediating function is under risk. One of the reasons for that is the fact that journalism practices are based on rational and modern principles, that deny subjectivity and reduce the understanding of society to binary models. Therefore, in order to surpass this dilemma, the analysis in this dissertation focuses on the Lesbian Press, in the belief that non-normative knowledges can teach something to journalism. The course of this segment through time is taken as a possible history, developed from a sapatão/lesbian analytic perspective. Such perspective is characterized by a rupture with multiple normative systems that shape society, including journalism practices and academical research. Those goals are sought by means of bibliographic research, archival research and oral history interviews with eight activists. A compilation of practices that can be adopted by tradicional communication media is offered as a result, proposing ways in which they can overcome the challenges they have been facing.