Violência contra a mulher, o Teatro do Oprimido e o Teatro das Oprimidas: construindo formas de intervenção social

Abstract

Among the types of gender violence, violence against women is the most frequent in the Brazilian context. This happens despite regulatory advances, the creation of mechanisms to curb domestic and family violence against women and the establishment of measures for the prevention, assistance and protection of women in situations of violence. Through the domination-exploitation-oppression scheme, cysheteropatriarchy exerts a great influence on women’s life, especially on those in poverty. The Theater of the Oppressed is an emancipatory and alternative device that proposes to question aspects of collectivity. Through TO, the purpose is to understand the mechanisms by which an oppression is produced, the discovery of tactics and strategies to avoid it and the rehearsal of these practices. From the association of these two elements and in search of the construction of liberating, creative and dialogic means to debate violence against women, this research was born. The study intends to analyze the Theater of the Oppressed as a form of social intervention in cases of violence against women, as well as to evaluate a methodological work proposal based on the method of the Theater of the Oppressed, to characterize and analyze the challenges of acting with Theater of the Oppressed nowadays and to identify the strategies for guaranteeing the fundamentals of the Theater of the Oppressed. Six women, jokers, working in TO are part of this research. The collection procedures and instruments used were the evaluation of an intervention planning aimed at women and semi-structured interviews. The results showed that the Theater of the Oppressed has its importance in the debate about oppression, but they point out the relevance of the Feminist Theater of the Oppressed as a way to discuss the consubstantiality of gender, race and class. It is a new methodology, designed to address specificities of women's oppression, without losing sight of the totality, the social context in which they operate. Both methodologies, the Theater of the Oppressed and the Feminist Theater of the Oppressed, were highlighted as means of reaching self-awareness and understanding the oppressions present in the lives of subjects and the macrostructure that sustains these oppressions. Furthermore, they were pointed out as paths towards the transformation of both private life and social context.