Women who wear uniforms: bodies “modeled” by the letters of the Law

Abstract

The objective of this work is to problematize the effects of meanings of the construction of the female military policewoman’s body that emerge in the legal discourse from the following sources: the decree n.º 2,905, published in 1989, act that creates the Female Military Police Company – CIA PM FEM, letter no. PM/3-003/88 sent to the Inspectorate of the Military Police (IGPM) with the project for the creation of this Company and regulation of the Female Police Company of the Military Police (REPOFEM/PM). Using French discourse analysis affiliated with Michel Pêcheux (AD), the following analytical categories were mobilized: discursive formation (DF), transverse discourse and subject-form. The analyzed materialities revealed that from a corporal pedagogy, the civil corps seen as female was remodeled/built into a new military corps that would preserve a controlled femininity. The transformation of women into soldiers through cultural arbitrations took place through the transmission of values, norms and standards that would integrate the knowledge that we came to identify as a military police FD based on two pillars - hierarchy and discipline, characterizing the military habitus, concept of Pierre Bourdieu who crosses it. The women who enrolled in this FD internalized the subject form corresponding to it: the female military police officer. In this position, they started to perform tasks related to motherhood and care for the other (with priority care for the elderly, children and women). Tasks considered essentially female. Certainly, the body in this environment is used from a performative logic conditioned to actions authorized by norms, such as the relationship between pairs, earrings, makeup that demarcate the position of women in public safety. It is a discourse that goes back to the sayings and practices of the women’s squad in São Paulo, a pioneer in the insertion of women into its organizational framework, which contributed to the externalization of the military hexis. Empirically, it points out as a result the historical-discursive mapping of the entry of women and Cia PM Fem in the Military Police of Bahia – PMBA through the historically subjugated body.