A imagem da mulher trabalhadora retratada pela arte comparada com o modelo de trabalho feminino apregoado pelo movimento de higiene mental

Abstract

The objective of this study is to compare the model of female labor advocated by the movement of mental hygiene with the image of working women expressed through artistic paintings produce by painters in Brazil or Brazilians in the first half of the twentieth century. In an overall redefinition of society, governed by the new social order based on wage labor, we consider how women's work was evidenced by the discourse of mental hygiene movement and the artistic paintings. This research is oriented, methodologically, a historical conception, which conceives of man as a social and therefore all human production as a way of life dependent on the material and social relations. It analyzes documents produced in the first half of the twentieth century, with the source and primary key: Archivos Brasileiros de Hygiene Mental (ABHM), journals published by the Brazilian League for Mental Hygiene (Mental, LBHM) and other documents produced by medical hygienists in season and artistic paintings which portray women and women's work, done in Brazil or Brazilian painters in the same period. Aiming to reflect on the work women are confronted with documents produced by hygienists artistic paintings of the time, in order to understand the similarities and differences between the screens of Brazilian artists and the idea of mental hygiene. By opting for a dialogue on women's work between the current medical-hygienist prioritizing mental hygiene and artistic paintings, it starts from the assumption that it is possible, through art, closer to the facts, characteristics and problems the time. It was possible to discuss the ideas of mental hygiene in line with the testimony of art. Screens that are presented, indeed, illustrate and exemplify the model of female labor prescribed by the hygienists, which in general should be restricted to domestic chores and child care. However, still present artistic paintings depicting the female work done outside the home, in factories, in agriculture, as street vendors, prostitutes, maids, among others. These images serve as a counterpoint, by witnessing not only the female labor participation, as well as real and difficult living conditions of large population make it impossible to many women, especially those of social background of low purchasing power, following the precepts hygienists Sayings and values regarding the role of women in society. Importantly, these precepts were directed to all women, regardless of social class, and for this reason, many times, the ideas of mental hygiene was silent about the difficult living conditions of the Brazilian people of the time, which, however have not gone unnoticed for some painters. The art, as a mode of expression and production of the man who bears the marks of its time, this study may have signs and evidence that the idealized woman of hygienists was a class privilege. The woman "queen of the home" was distinguished woman "working" as a result of how society was and still is organized and therefore of unequal social conditions of life.