Enunciar-se, organizar-se, controlar-se: modos de subjetivação feminina no dispositivo da maternidade

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analysethe way in which the motherhood role isorganised in the media, producingspecific modes of female subjectivation.Based on a Foucaultian framework, Icharacterise enunciating oneself,organising oneself and controllingoneself as techniques of the self used bythe mother-subjects. I thus undertake adiscursive analysis of two sets ofmaterials: one consisting of articlesfrom the magazines Veja and Caras,from 1992 to 2002, about “famousmothers” (Cássia Eller, LucianaGimenez, Vera Fischer and Xuxa); and,the other, consisting of articlespublished in the magazine Crescer,between January 2001 and July 2002. Ishow how this mechanism organisesthese techniques of the self in order tocreate a logic where the mother-indivi-dual is asked to focus on herself andconsider that taking care of herself istaking care of the other (her son) and,in this way, leading the mother-individuals to recognise themselves asobjects visible to themselves and toenunciate themselves as subjectstransformed by maternal practices.