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Introduction
On October 11th of 1905, on Wednesday, started to be sold on Rio de Janeiro’s street, till then Brazilian republic capital, the children magazine,O Tico - Tico. The weekly newspaper number one cover, about Publisher Sociedade Anonyma O Malho, has the titleImpose who can2 e presents different perspectives about the launching of publication. Composed of just for two comic strips, the first narrative describes an imaginative version about the creation ofO Tico - Tico. A children group protest claims with the magazine newsroom, addressed in Ouvidor Street in downtown.
With the fist in the air, boys and girls turn to the characterO Malho, icon symbol of the print office and the magazine with the same name, to make a lot of complaints. Scarred,O Malho asks the little demonstrators if that movement is a revolution: “The hope of this nation, what do you want?3. They answered: “- We want our magazine. Mr. Mallho, you are well-done and are very funny, but you a not enough!4” The second strip shows the children throwing their hats high. How would be the reason for such a mood change? The character O Malho agreed to content the children’ wishes: “- Future homeland saviors and future family mothers, from now every Wednesday, ask your parents to buy O Tico-Tico”5 (p.1).
The use of expressions “pequenas esperanças da Pátria, Futuros salvadores da Pátria e mães de família futuras”, awoke the following questions:How the children were noticed under Brazilian society at the beginning of twentieth century? What kind of patriotic contents was produced for children? How were the gender relations at the begging of the Brazilian republican period?
The creation of the referred publication involved the action of intellectuals the gambled on no scholar press as a way to publicize the knowledge to the formations of Brazilians children: Cardoso Júnior, Luis Bartolomeu de Souza e Silva, Manoel Bomfim e Renato de Castro. They had the purpose to supply the lack of the Brazilian national press, insistent in not publish magazines that privileged the expectations and needs of toddlers. How can be demonstrated in this small extract of the first editorial launched on O Tico - Tico: “This little newspaper (to use an inevitable argument) fills a gap. It is a newspaper intended to promote for children: reading, amusement, and distraction"6 (1905, s/p.).
Those intellectuals took the inspiration in french illustrated magazines, directed to boys and girls, and the North Americans comic books. Emphasizes the French press:Le Jeudi de La jeunesse(1902),La Jeunesse Illustrée(1903),Les Belles Images(1903),Le Petit Journal Illustré de La Jeunesse(1904) eLa Semaine de Suzette(1905). Besides of theBuster Brown(1902), character created by Richard Felton Outcault and that was the role model for the Brazilian characterChiquinho, a little boy and image symbol of O Tico - Tico (ROSA, 2002).
The magazine process of development was associated with a consolidation of Brazilian children's literature effectively written by national’s authors. According to Hansen (2007) was in the turn off the 19th century and the start of the twentieth century witch intellectuality imbued of this mission. In your early days in Brazil, this literary genre was bounded to scholar literature, “simplesmente destinados a fornecer leituras aos meninos nas escolas” (ARROYO, 1968, p.120). There was no content suitability to the age of lectures.
Boys and the girls suffer, from an early age, since they barely learn how to articulate of vowels and consonants; they are obligated to read, for example, whole songs of The Lusíadas, or memorizing them.7 (...) (Loc.cit.).
Throughout the 19th century, children's literature published in the country was merely translations of foreign books used by the general public. For example: The Thousand and One Nights (1882), Robison Crusoé (1885), Gulliver's travel (1888) e The Adventures of Barão Munchausen(1891). Also, a lot of these books was sold in Brazil with no age rating e, for this reason, the publishers used marketing them like publications for toddlers (SILVA, 2010).
Become emphasize that this movement made was part of a huge context about political and socio-cultural transformations witch consequences were the end of Monarch and the Proclamation of the Brazilian Republic in 1889. The republican’s elites defended that a new social order needs to be consolidated, in which the social vices must be overcome on behalf of modern society and focused on European conducts and values.
One of the most visibility consequences of this new scene was the Rio de Janeiro, till republican capital, downtown modernization. NamedBota - Abaixo (Knock it down ), the reform led by Major Pereira Passos (1902 - 1906) that immersed a Republic Capital in a cosmopolite visage. The narrow streets and the colonial architecture were replaced by urban buildings and wide streets likeCentral Avenue(1904). People began to circulate by tram. The Municipal Theater inauguration meant the creation of an excellent place for Classical culture. Women walked along trough the downtown area dressed conservative clothes, gloves, and large hats. Clothing better suited to European temperatures than Rio’s climate. The appropriation of these social behaviors should be compared to a kind of social contract aimed at maintaining collective discipline (SEVCENKO, 2006).
In agreement with the perspective ofa new beginning, the child was identified as themain character. After being the target of moral, educational and civic actions, the infant must be able to break the establish ties with a stained past by social problems like the illiteracy. For Camara (2010), the political and intellectual sectors of the country started to spread the idea that a spirit of patriotism should be created inside the Brazilian child heart. This perspective contributed to the consolidation of the bourgeois concept of childhood. According to the new family structure, children have gained the status of a most special family member (PERROT, 2009).
The preference for developing a publication along the lines of illustrated magazines, rather than the book format, was bounded by to the process of modernization of the Brazilian press (HANSEN, Op.cit). As well, the founding - intellectuals of O Tico-Tico had newspapers and magazines as their main job. The use of conception intelligence is linked to the category elaborated by Sirinelli (2003) about the intellectual creators and cultural mediators. Into this group have been: journalists, writers, and high school teachers. They are characterized by enjoying the press as an instance of sociability. Newsrooms and editorial boards of magazines are places for sharing worldviews. “In conclusion, a magazine is, first of all, a place of intellectual fermentation and affective relationship, at the same time nursery and space of sociability”8 (p.249). Gomes (2009) describes Brazilian intellectuals of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as “professionals of symbolics goods, essentials to the legitimation of modern politicals regimes9” (p.26). Sevcenko (2003) states that Brazilian intellectuality found in the press, especially the illustrated magazines, its main means for the circulation of an idea of modernity and civility:
The refined finish and simple literary treatment of the raw material tend to turn the reading of this kind of text something compulsory or its daily consumption by the literate groups of the city. This “new journalism,” with its mundane magazines intensely illustrated, which is its most refined product, becomes the urban bourgeoisie new trend, meaning its reading, in all its forms, a sign of posh in an atmosphere of regeneration. This scenario created as an "urban public opinion, anxious by the judgment and orientation of intellectuality that worked in the newsrooms"10 (p.119).
According to Sodré (1999) and Luca (2008), the small printers lose space for journalistic companies. The insertion of “Modern mechanical composition machines, zinc cliches, and ever faster-rotating have allowed publications to use color illustrations and photographs. In addition to increasing and faster printing of copies”11(Ibidem., p.1). This new printing model was presented to O Tico - Tico readers, through the coloring pages and the presence of photos that were sent by their public.
AlthoughO Tico-Ticohas been a magazine targeted for all the children, a careful reading of its editions indicates the existence of the contents focused just for boys and just for girls. The Brazilian elites were concerned to reinforce into the childhood the bourgeois moral values which defended that boys should be prepared for the labor world and the girls should be prepared to be a good wife. A consequence of a social environment target by some conservative and sexist characteristics that classified female gender as to representations of fragility and submission. However, it should be emphasized that these speeches were ambiguous because it was the women who had the responsibility to provide the moral education necessary for the development of good citizens.
In the pages ofO Tico-Tico, especially in the early years of the publication, circulated a discourse that the boy's moral instruction should be emphasized, not the feminine formation. However, for the magazine to fulfill its mission, publishers needed to be concerned about the girls' needs.
Even O Tico-Tico had its format inspired by several children's publications, in this article is privileged the magazine La Semaine de Suzette. The Brazilian magazine reproduced some of its contents from the French publication12. Launched by Gautier-Languereau Publishing House, Suzette's Semaine went on sale on February 2 of 1905. Aimed at girls aged 8 to 14 who belonged to bourgeois families, its purpose was to promote the moral and religious formation. The magazine editions were constituted by handicraft, games, contests, illustrated narratives, plays, cooking recipes, sewing activities (COUDEREC, 2005). AtO Tico-Ticothe bourgeois girls and women should be beautiful, kind, submissive and have domestic skills. Because of this image was created specific sections about themes considered eminently feminine, such as fashion and household care.
The reason for developing a study on O Tico-Tico's contribution to the formation of girls is consonant with Perrot's (1989) perspective, in which historiographic production relegated a female trajectory as "faint shadows" (p.9). In the twentieth century, there were several questions about the role of women in society. For Scott (2012), these narratives were focused on the perspective of highlighting female participation in the historical process. Initially, the researches approached women biographies. These studies used to be centered on the category: heroines. This political perspective has become the target of criticals. There was an objection about the existence of a universal category to classify all the women since the historiography recognized that an individual has multiple identities: social, ethnic, cultural, sexual, and religious, among other categories.
The definition of gender begun to delineate studies on male and female relationship. Aspects of physical and biological overcame through social construction. As Almeida (2007) remind, such relations are not characterized by impartiality, as they are flexible and immersed in power struggles. Pinsky (2014) advert that gender constructions are characterized by complementarity because changes in women's status are reflected in the male gender either:
When we refer to gender, we discuss about a cultural construction which is observed and meant as sexual difference, in other words, the manners how societies understand, for example, what is “being a man” and “being a woman”, and what is “masculine” and “feminine13” (p.1).
This extract reinforces the fact of physical and biological aspects were replaced by a social construction. The article theme covers the initial 20 years of circulation ofO Tico-Tico, which lasted until February 1962. The period between 1905 and 1925 was privileged, as it was consolidated as the moment of the structuring of the first spaces of the magazine considered eminently feminine as: Secção para meninas (Section for girls), Section for our readers (Secção para nossas leitoras), Costumes for our readers (Figurinos para nossas leitoras) and For our readers (Para nossas leitoras).
O Tico-Tico and the defense of mothers of future families
On September 16th of 1905, an announcement was published in the revueO Malhoregarding the launch ofO Tico-Tico, in which it was presented the rules to participate in the magazine's first contest entitledWhat does the boy want to be? (O que é que o menino quer ser?).According to the instructions, just male children up to 12 years old could send them solutions. They should use in their texts the title What I want to be, and discuss the following aspects: which profession they would like to have and point the reasons and motives for choosing a certain profession. The winner would be paid with a prize of 100$000 réis. The conditions assumed:
The answers will be short and will not exceed more than one page: those who broke this rule will be disqualified. Replies must be sent to our office until day 30th of the current month and have to include the true signature and pieces of information about the age, and the address. Of course, parents, teachers, or anyone else do not give any kind of writing help in these responses. For example, if someone prepares or amends the boy's narrative, this would be a distortion of the contest proposal and would perpetrate an act of falsity that could result in a bad influence on the child's moral formation. They need to respond in agreement with their spirit and wishes. The first virtue of this contest should be: If the boy knows, from an early age, what he will wants to be, he must reveal his vocation, courage, and values. The boy will keep his grown-up dreams. In the contest ends, which we hope that the boys choose should be in according to the most desired professional. We will be able to identify how it is gonna be Brazil's future and predict if this new generation, that has been pointing, will have the capacities of leading this great country to the tomorrow and make our dream bright come true. As you can see, this is a very interesting contest 14(p.40).
About the contest, female preclusion was linked to the view that women should only be concerned with marriage and home administration. Thus, they could not send answers to future professions. As stated at the text published atO Malhoedition in September 23th of 1905, about this contest: “The fair sex is not hurt, or sad, or has bad behavior. For fair sex, like a blooming flower, we will have more contests15” (p.13). At O Tico-Tico edition in March 28th of 1906, was published the result of Contest No. 28 - An Underwater Ride (Concurso n.28 - Um passeio de baixo d’água). In the puzzle-like activity, the children had to cut out the drawn parts and create the images of a fish and a frog. The winners would win prizes of 10$000. Because of its ease, the publication received numerous letters with the correct solution:
In the draw among those who sent the exact solution the girls outwitted the boys this time. Luck chose the girls, but surely the little strong sex is love enough to not get angry about it16 (p.16).
According to Priore (2003), the expressionsFair Sex (Bello Sexo) and Fragile Sex (Sexo Frágil) were invented by scientific thinking to consolidate the inferiority parameters of the female body. Subsequently, such adjectives broke the barriers of medical textbooks and emerged as categories in the social world:
Determined by male society thoughts, the evocation of female’s body images and identity, by different authors reflected only subordination: femle’s bodies were smaller, their bones small, their flesh soft and spongy, their character weak17 (p.177).
Sidney Chalhoub (2001) research the main feature of the influence of scientific knowledge in the definition of men’s and women’s sexual roles, which were based on the bourgeois view of Rio de Janeiro's elites in the early twentieth century. Chalhoub cites Jurandir Freire Costa's study of the theses presented at the Rio de Janeiro’s and Bahia’s Medical Schools in the 19th century. Costa researched narratives on sexual differences centered on the analysis of anatomical characteristics. Academic papers aimed to understand how each sex handled their feelings. Because of their physical fragility, women were described as delicate and docile. Men were characterized as virile individuals:
Considered a creature naturally weak, female characteristics as sensitivity, sweetness, passivity, and submission were identified as the woman's mainly virtues. (...) In contrast, man's qualities become characterized by physical brawn and moral strength. Dominated by the virility, the man loves less than the woman, and his interest was directed forward to the sensual desire. The man was rude, rational, authoritarian and hard18 (p.178).
The story The women’s enemy (O inimigo das mulheres), published in the edition of June 30th of 1909, raises questions about women's social value. The narrative describes the offenses granted by the boy namedLuluagainst his sister. Systematically, the boy boasts of the supposed superiority of man over woman.Luluonly becomes aware of the value of women when he gets hurt and needs care and attention. His sister readily bandages him andLulutells her that at that moment he had understood which tasks a woman was suited for.
The female model present in the pages of O Tico-Tico is consonant withLa Semaine de Suzette. Representations and discourses about the feminine gender of the french magazine were similar to those found in the Brazilian magazine. According to Couderec (Op. Cit.), the contents aimed at girls' education should emphasize the importance of the family. Men and women's roles had to be specifically identified and presented. In order to facilitate the reader's understanding about the importance of good manners, the characters were divided in two distinct groups: the first withn the good and honest girls and the second had the ones considered weak and able to committe all sorts of inadequate things. O Tico-Tico clearly followed these patterns. As noted by Vergueiro (Op. Cit.):
The concern about girls shaping presented in O Tico-Tico is by the aegis of the dominant view in that time about women role in Brazilian society, that is, family environment bulwark, responsible for the children education, and housework19 (p.177).
The contents published in O Tico-Tico had as references the representations based on the women definition as someone devoted to motherhood, marriage, and home. Other female models were also present on the pages of the children's magazine, but there was a concern to fight them through advice, stories and moralizing speeches20. Nuclear family valorization resulted in the institution of the “happy family” category (CAMPOS, 2009, p.9). This model required mothers and fathers to fulfill the idealized requirements of “affective, healthy, beautiful, educated, and chaste wives, perfect companions for an idealized, hard-working, dedicated husband with austere habits, at last” (Ibid., P. 90). In line with such thinking, Maluf and Mott (2006) state: “The architecture of the happy home has trapped men and women within a strictly normative framework”21 (p.382).
Pages devoted to sweet readers
The reading of examples from O Tico-Tico allows to identify the presence of content considered eminently feminine. What were these subjects? Beauty, cosmetics, elegance, fashion, maternity, health, handicrafts and housekeeping. Some of these themes are easily demarcated as if the magazine had contents produced only for girls: Secção para meninas, Moda para nossas leitoras, Figurinos para nossas leitoras and Para nossas leitoras. In such context were formulated some questions: Why set feminine specifics contents? Would there be differentiation among the subjects that every child should know and those that only the female gender should know? Why these themes were considered feminine? Why this kind of information was so important to girl readers?
InO Tico-Tico,the female sections were understood as demands for girls' audiences. The sectionO Tico - Tico’s Cage (Gaiola d’ O Tico-Tico) of 13th November of 1907, published the answer for five girls that requested the creation by the magazine of some feminine spaces:
Your suggestion is very acceptable, although we did not correctly understand your idea in the first letter. We thought up that you wished a section for girls with handmade activities, etc. As you explained now, it's even more interesting. We are willing to satisfy you but wait a minute. It needs to imagine and prepare the drawings… In any case, be aware because soon we will publish the story, Mariquinha Sleeper22 (p.12).
At the answering, the publishers quoted that the magazine would issue a story intituled Mariquinha Sleeper (Mariquinha Dorminhoca). No search found the edition in which the narrative was published. However, it appears that the contributors and the writers of O Tico-Tico were attentive to the wishes of her readers. In the magazine, the process of selecting and choosing the themes addressed in these spaces was a reflection of the women's press and the manuals for girls and women in circulation since the 19th century. According to Luca (2013):
This kind of press is specifically aimed for women, although it was not always written by women. It is a sort of journalistic production that is not directed by the need for hard news, the raw material of excellence of journalism. The opposed of the female press that orbits around perennial themes, which is not dependent on the event speed. Fashion, beauty, home, cooking or childcare are part of a circular approach connected to a circular nature, and contacted to seasons: after all, recipes, recommendations, winter, and summer advice can be used in subsequent years, since always turned and presented as the last word about the theme23 (p.448).
Buitoni (2009) identifies that the female press may initially be perceived as something smaller or marked by passivity, but “It is more ideologized than the press dedicated to the general audience. Under the guise of neutrality, the women's papers publish very strong contents24” (p.21). Its happens in reason of the dispute for the legitimation of certain female representations. On the one hand, the conservative in which women must be the home queen. On the other, the conception that females should devote themselves to intellectual activities rather than domestic gifts. The fact is that O Tico-Tico classified certain themes as appropriate to the feminine taste, shows that the print had the objective of validating a set of rules and behaviors to be internalized by its readers.
Secção das Meninas: learning the domestic practices
O Tico-Tico, of May 15 of 1907, published its first section for female readers. Called Distractions for girls (Distracções para meninas), wich contents refer to handmade home decoration. It highlights the use of the word Distracções (Distractions), as synonymous of something fool or as a hobby, to denominate a female section. The feminine activities were considered something lesser than others?
The text warns readers about to avoid waste any time trying to make beautiful adornments with guidelines. To ease the task, the magazine chose to teach girls how to create beautiful ornaments just using scissors and paper. This was the only localized edition of Distractions for girls (Distracções para meninas).
On the July 31 issue of the same year, the inaugural edition of the Section for girls (Secção para meninas), a space for handicrafts. It was not yet a regular section. It was published regularly from 1909 to 1919. After this period, its editions became rarely until 1921, when it was replaced by Feminine Gifts (Prendas Femininas) and Girls Section (Secção de meninas).
The section was inspired by the Nous habillons Bleuette (We dress Bleuette) section of La Semaine de Suzette. In the French magazine, the readers learned the gifts of home to take care of the Bleuette doll. The first issue brings the story O nascimento de Bleuette (The birth of Bleuette) (COUDEREC, Op.cit.). The character is still successful.
There are several websites dedicated to the doll, and an exhibition was also held in her honor at the Dolls Museum in Paris. In the Brazilian press, theSecção para Meninascan be considered a children's handbook for future housewife. They taught girls how to embroider collars, crochet stitches, sew doll clothes, create table decorations and make gifts without spending a lot of money. When they grow up, the girls who had followed all the advice would be good wives. Emphasizing the perspective in which:
The informative articles aimed at women highlight issues as domestic activities. Meanwhile, for boys the majority of themes focus, in the construction of toy airplanes and miscellaneous objects, often use rudimentary knowledge of carpentry or locksmithing arts as devoted to women - as in the assembly of Section for girls, published between 1911 and 1919 - focused on sewing, embroidery and bristles, ways of arranging dinner and even the same correct way to fold a napkin25 (VERGUEIRO, Op.cit., p.178).
It assumed that girls had a natural propensity for this kind of activity. In a counseling speech, the text reinforces the stereotype of a woman as a subject whose social function was restricted to marriage and caring home. Enjoying leisure could result in a lonely future or a bad marriage. The knowledge of the domestic skills was considered an important aspect for man proposes marriage to a woman. On December 29 of 1909, the issue of Secção para Meninas approached the theme of female utilitarian Education as can be observed in the quote from How girls can be useful in a home (Como as meninas se podem tornar úteis numa casa):
Sometimes, girls spend whole days on silly amusements to pass the time, even there are certain simple home services to do. When there is no little brother to care for and cuddle or a doll to wear, girls can have fun folding an outfit, and cleaning the furniture. An opportunity to arouse the desire to work. No matter how rich as it can be, that girl will be far inferior to the poor woman, who never walked down an avenue and doesn't know what is a car, that cook, take care of her clothes, and tidy up the house. Idleness is the worst of all addictions, and girls should avoid it - as much as they can. Is essential for girls to get crochet, embroidery and, how to do all the adorns of their clothes because if they cannot buy it, they will make them easily. In the past, beauty wasn't the main reason for a man to propose marriage. It was most important that the woman has the best qualities to be a housewife. If the girls observed old pictures and photographs, they will identify that even the women peasants - with no idea about what was an avenue or a car - they were always well-dressed, because they knew how to stitch the own clothes, and took care of the main home services. Work, and make your mother glad and, make all who will know you happy too26 (p.6).
The wife devoted to the family should also have notions and knowledge about home decoration. From the nineteenth century, the house was not exclusive to the family living, because it became also as the “appearance place (bourgeois appearance)27” (MALTA, 2014, p.10). The female sex was the main customer of behavior handbooks. The manuals pages were filled with the lessons of good manners, correct body postures and “posh descriptions, sociabilty, costumes, cristian education, good manners and etiquette28” (CECCHIN; CUNHA, 2007, p.6). In the beginning, this kind of literature was restricted for the private space of the home, but progressively it's broke this border, due to the use of this publication as didactic materials at the female schools. The differentiation of education by gender and the perspective that boys' instruction was more intellectualized than the scholar learning offered to girls was present in the editions of Section for girls.
A PAPER COMPASS
Another day, in a previous edition, it was taught how to create some cardboard tools to replace a square, a ruler, etc. Often, to perform needlework or toys, it is necessary to have squares, rulers, compasses ... Now, rarely a girl has this kind of object, so she is forced to borrow them and, unintentionally breaking them. It is best not to ask29 (07/04/1909, p.19).
HOW TO DECAL A DRAWING
Girls often struggle with great difficulty to do certain works because they do not have the necessary tools. Boys have drawing tools, special gadgets, everything is arranged to facilitate their studies, which are generally more serious and important than the girl's class. For this reason, our little girl's friends, lacking the necessary resources, are often deprived of doing delicates drawings scribble, which achievement depends mainly on easier qualities to find in girls than in boys like patience, care, and zeal30 (05/05/1909, p.16).
The readers did not have a compass to measure because the object was not part of their school material. They haven’t geometry classes. A sign of differentiation in educational background was in the fact that girls did not have a compass but should have a cooking apron. “All girls must have an apron, because its censurable do work home wearing the dress that you will wear to go out, without dirtying it with dust and stains31” (p.5). This advice or warning, titled How to make an apron (Como fazer um avental), was published atSection for girls on April 19 of 1911. The domestic apron is described as an indispensable item for little girls who want to learn about the world of handicrafts and housekeeping.
The number of curriculum disciplines offered to girls, either in professional education or in regular education was different from those studied by boys. Handicraft classes should provide the enhancement of an inherent gift for women. Thus, “(…) it aimed to prepare them for the manual execution of a wide variety of products, understood as artistic ability and intellectual competence32" (RODRIGUES, 2008, p.73). In Louro (2009) perspective, the school was an institution that had an ambiguous speech. The strategic themes approached in O Tico-Tico emphasized that girls should have guidance about domestic knowledge, in a way to avoiding afterward mistakes.
Fashionable Readers: stylish girls and women
For Freyre (2009) fashion means
(...) use, habit, or fashion style generally accepted, which is variable in time resulting from a certain taste, idea, whim, or influence from the environment. Transient use that regulates how to dress, wear, comb, etc. Apparel art and technique. Way, feature. Will, fantasy, whim. Aria, song, a fad. Typical folklore song. A social or cultural phenomenon, more or less coercive, which consists of periodic style, and which vitality comes from the need to conquer or maintain a determined social position for some time33 (p.28).
As reported by Souza (1987), fashion is an element of integration and, at the same time, of social distinction. With an emphasis on the last decades of the nineteenth century, it became common for Brazilian female press to dedicate pages to the reproduction of models published in French magazines. Republican elites' speeches included a new way to behave and dress. To be part of this show, it was necessary to know how to choose the correct costume. Priore (Op.cit.) emphasizes fashion symbolic and differentiator character. Represents a code for approach or separation between certain groups that make up the same society:
Act of differentiation, the dressing up was an act of meaning. It manifested, in symbolic terms or by convention, at the same time or separately, an essence, a tradition, an appanage, an inheritance, a caste, a language, a social and geographical provenance, and an economic role. Clothing made hierarchies visible, according to a code guaranteed and perpetuated by society. In the construction of appearance, the elites have always sought to distance themselves from the popular classes. Not only by the use of expensive fabrics and materials but by the lack of comfort that would lead to less hierarchical behavior34 (p.205-206).
The vestments can be considered a kind of identification protocol. Together, well-done hairstyles, make-up choices, and certain accessories use to create a fashion language. Being well-dressed is also related to the fact that women, especially the riches, started to attend to spaces outside the home more frequently. The urban reforms that took place in the city of Rio de Janeiro created new spaces and public places that were also occupied by females. The first section inO Tico-Ticodedicated to readers clothing was theSection of our readers: modern outfits (Seção de nossas leitoras:figurinos modernos). Conforming to its opening text on June 9th of 1915, the release was a request from the female audience:
To satisfy the constants requests of our kind readers, we will offer in this section, clothes design and sewing lessons. Beyond this, we will indicate the best suggestions about colors, clothing, fabrics, shoes, and other fashions vestment indications. We hope our little friends keeping write to us; pointing about which ones they need more explanations. We will be such a pleasure to satisfy your asks35 (p.7).
The sections are not limited to presenting the latest fashion releases; they constitute an iconographic manual of female behavior. Through the images in circulation, female readers were aware of the prerequisites needed to be included in the standard required by society:
The records of the "real" elegance are property, harmony, and simplicity. A dress or hat with useless and complicated ornaments cannot be charming; they may contain beautiful details, but together they are unfashioned. This is the first aspect that refers to simplicity and teaches that ornaments and garnishes should be used according to the dress style and their utility. The second, which refers to property, means understand that a dress, a hat or a pair of shoes that look great on certain occasions are nonsense on others. For example, a silk dress adorned with satin and glass beads, and an opulent feathers hat are inappropriate if a girl uses this outfit to go for a morning ride, shopping, or a picnic. It is the same as going to prom using a dress and a hat. Each clothing has to be dressed up according to the appropriate time and place. For harmony, it necessary for keeping all apparel items in agreement with each other. In this case, a linen dress cannot match with a satin blouse, adorned with silk. On the other hand, a satin skirt cannot be adorned with linen embroidery. A dress doesn’t accept an apparatus hat, either low-heeled shoes. There are many other ways where elegance manifests by common sense. Nothing is more inadequate than use jewel in the morning, with a linen dress or sketch; nothing is less elegant than a single girl wearing an opulent ornament. These rules are not fashion news; they are hard principles, which must always be observed. Next issue, we will have more news36 (FOR OUR READERS, 22/03/1916, s/p.).
In the context ofO Tico-Tico, it is imperative to citeDe Pueris Instituendisof Erasmus of Rotterdam. Published in 1530, it was described by Elias (1994) as a work belonging to the transition process between the medieval society and the consolidation of the Absolutist State. The social structure was changed, and as a consequence, mores and behavior also modified. For Revel (1991) the publication had as a singular character, the fact of being targeted to children’s readers:
Pois, símbolo da simplicidade e da inocência evangélicas, a criança que ainda não foi pervertida pela vida social está aberta a todos os aprendizados e ao mesmo tempo encarna uma espécie de transparência elementar: não sabe esconder nada do que ela é37 (p.174).
The children's manual is a compilation of notions of good manners and misbehaviors along a certain historical period. By reading it, it is possible to understand which attitudes should be followed and which ones should be rejected, either in the private space or in social relations besides home:
In fact, in a few dozen pages, this manual unites observations and advice to be learned by children, focusing on the main aspects of society´s lifestyle. It deals with posture, social behaviors (in the church, at the table, on a meeting, at kidding), and, finally, about lying down38 (Ibidem.,p.172).
The formation of new habits and mores is inserted in a pedagogical dimension. Fashion section of O Tico-Tico, female figures wear elegant blouses and dresses, and boast chic hairstyles. The images, from girls or women, presented as the standard of beauty: white skin and a slim body. They display serene facial expressions, a restrained smile, and candid look. The arms, hands and legs are always placed in delicate gestures. As stated by Revel (Op.cit.)
For us, the psychological reading of the eye is an elemental commonplace. However, all movements, all body postures, clothing itself can be the subject of a similar reading. Gestures are signs and can be organized into a language; they are exposed to interpretation and allow for moral, psychological and social recognition of the person. There is no intimacy that they do not reveal39(p.173).
Beyond of well-dressing, these spaces highlight an indispensable female feature: elegance. Being elegant also came to be seen as a way of “distinction. an aesthetic distinction of elegance” “distinção estética da elegância” was instituted (SOUZA, Op.cit., p.134). As demonstrate by Revel (Op. Cit.) and Elias (1994), civility manuals address the control of pulsations, gestures, and feelings to define a standard citizen model. InO Tico-Tico, the delicacy and femininity are stimulated characteristics. The reflex of a model in it women are beautiful and fragile as a piece of porcelain. Regarding young women and mothers, reinforcing that the way a woman dresses can indicate the possibility of a good marriage or a sign of the husband's prosperity. In the words of Higionnet (1991): “The femininity is in part a question of appearance40” (p.298). For girls, a learning to be gained from childhood. As for young women and mothers, stressing that the way a woman dresses can symbolize the possibility of a good marriage or a sign of her husband's prosperity.
Concluding considerations
OTico-Ticois composed of comics, characters, and sections that, through fun and child’s play, intended to help shape behaviors and social roles in line with a social project based on the reformist desire of Brazilian elites. Among the instances to be standardized, one can point to gender relations. The elites were concerned to reinforce the social model in which men had to be prepared for the working world.
From a different perspective that O Tico-Tico focused its attention only on boy's instruction, the magazine was also dedicated to training Brazilian girls. The elites were concerned to reinforce the social model in which men had to be prepared for the working world. In the same way, women would learn about housework and housekeeping.
A reflex of a social environment marked by strong conservative and sexist traits that linked female gender to representations of fragility and submission. Concern for the readers centered on the fact that girls would be the mothers of future families that would raise the nation's future leaders.
O Tico-Tico issues prioritized girls' and readers' instruction. One can question the construction of the female gender conveyed in their examples, but not the presence of silences about women. The magazine based its contents on the dichotomy between the Strong sex (Sexo forte) and the Fair sex (Bello sexo). A model based on girls' submission to boys was advocated. Girls must be beautiful, kind, predictive, and well-behaved. Not by chance, specific sections have been created for girls reading about the latest fashion trends and how to make beautiful embroidery. Mastery in these subjects was considered an important skill to win a potential good husband and make a great marriage.
