Femininity in Superhero Comics: a study of social representations

Abstract

The visual image has been largely taking up the means of communication of postmodernity as an important communicational resource. By the same token, the theory of social representations (TSR) has assumed a privileged place in the study of mass communication, to grasp the relationship manners socially shared by subjects about determined objects. The goal of this research is to present a methodological composition with a visual image analysis that can be useful in the field of research about TSR. To this end, we regained the analysis of visual content through an associative model of Variables and Values, linking it to the premises of Barthesian semiotics, attesting that they are complementary methods. This methodological composition was applied to investigate the femininity representation in superhero comics, through the image of Wonder Woman. The results show the reaffirmation of traditional values naturalized in the representation of femininity, exhibiting only a few (and momentary) changes over the years.