Ser vaidoso na medida: estudo da relação entre as práticas corporais estéticas e as masculinidades dos clientes dos Salões de beleza Presidente e D’Flávio

• Ano de defesa: 2016
• Autor(a) principal: Rebouças, Gabriela Vieira
• Orientador(a): Leão, Andréa Borges
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Palavras-chave em Português: Practices of Body Aesthetics; The Right Amount of Vanity; Imagem corporal em homens; Masculinidade; Identidade (Psicologia); Beleza física (Estética)
• Link de acesso: http://www.repositorio.ufc.br/handle/riufc/18187

This Master’s thesis, entitled “The right amount of vanity: a study of the relation between practices of body aesthetics and the masculinities of customers at the hair salons Presidente and D’Flávio”, refers to the theme of masculine vanity in the city of Fortaleza, Brazil. The aim of this research is to understand the connection between the practices of body aesthetics carried out by eleven customers in the hair salon Presidente, located downtown, and the salon for men’s haircuts D’Flávio, in Aldeota neighborhood, and their masculinities, considering the body’s relevance in these constructions. In their quest for good looks, customers acquire habits and forge a relation between body, masculinity and sociability. The methodological approach of the research therefore deals with body practices, addressing the body as a discourse (COURTINE, 2013) that is set through techniques of the body (MAUSS, 2003), which lead to adaptations in regards to three aspects: the sociological, the psychological and the biological. However, in spite of the frequency in which interlocutors repeat these practices, they reaffirm they have “the right amount of vanity”, arguing they care about the appearance of their body aesthetics because of work, aging, health, hygiene or because of women’s demands, thus giving purpose to their actions rather than plain “vanity for vanity”. According to them, “the right amount of vanity” means a position between negligence and exaggeration with appearance, which are perceived as negative attitudes since negligence is prejudicial in proximity, contact and trust in both social and intimate relations, whereas exaggeration is connected to futility, destruction of the self and trespassing the “boundaries” of masculinity. The research, therefore, approaches the importance given to care with good looks and appearance in contemporary society in relation to the native belief of “the right amount of vanity”, also including the question of hegemonic masculinity (KIMMEL, 1998) as a reference.