Beauty and feminity: the female body in the periodical Vida Capichaba (1925 - 1939)

Abstract

This paper investigates images of the feminine present in the periodical Vida Capichaba, a magazine published biweekly in the State of Espirito Santo, Brazil, between the decades of 1920 and the 1950. Due to the periodical’s publication longevity, the authors decided to focus their analytical work on the 1920s and 1930s, specifically between 1925 and 1939. Understanding that the illustrated magazine registered history in a language of images and basing that study on Mauad (2005), the authors focused their work on the analysis of images. It was revealed that the extent to which images integrated and composed the periocal equaled the texts published in it. The construct of beauty and of a slim and young body became characteristics of the new Capichaba woman [from the State of Espirito Santo], both belonging to the images that were most addressed by the journal. The search for beauty not only highlights the feminine existence, but also establishes rules of corporal behaviour.