Efeitos de sentido de “empoderamento feminino”: entre o dicionário e o texto publicitário-jornalístico

Abstract

In this research, aligned with Discourse Analysis (Pêcheux, 1969; Orlandi, 1986), we aimed to understand the construction of meanings for the word 'empowerment' in monolingual dictionaries and how these meanings are inscribed within a market-oriented discourse, circulating in digital media, determining or silencing other interpretations of "female empowerment." The research archive was built from a thematic entry, considering the circulation of words in discourses on gender issues, selecting the word 'empowerment' for an analysis of its dictionary definition, reading this entry as discourse. The text "What is female empowerment and why is it important," published on the Blog da Usa (on the Usaflex women’s footwear company website), was also selected to examine the overlapping effects between advertising and journalism. This text was chosen because it references the definition of the term recorded in the Michaelis dictionary to inform blog readers about what 'female empowerment' is, while simultaneously advertising products for sale. To enhance the analysis, the Aurélio dictionary was also selected, whose structure and conditions of production differ from the Michaelis dictionary. Based on Discursive Lexicography (Orlandi, 2002), which approaches the dictionary as a discursive and historical object, the definitions of 'empowerment' in the two dictionaries were analyzed, identifying that one of the effects produced by the Michaelis dictionary is a homogenizing effect. The Aurélio dictionary, in contrast, produces a not homogenizing effect, including entries with meanings related to gender and power issues. In the analysis of the Blog da Usa's advertorial text, it was identified that the expression "female empowerment" is appropriated by market discourse to promote product sales to women, reducing female empowerment, a collective effort, to an individualized action. This mechanism operates through neoliberal ideological dissimulation, which works by silencing discourses and fabricating consensus (Orlandi, 2004).