Media, gender and conservatism

How the women elected in 2020 in the historical circuit of Minas Gerais build their representations in the social media

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyze how elected female mayors in municipalities along the historical route of Estrada Real in Minas Gerais, Brazil, constructed their political representations in the connected public sphere of social media during the 2020 electoral campaign and how they maintained them in their first year of office, considering the increasing use of the permanent campaign strategy characterized by the intensification of the mediatization process. To conduct this research, a brief theoretical review was carried out on the dialectical relationship between feminism as a mass movement (FRASER, 2019) and the emergence of neoconservatism (BIROLI; MACHADO, VAGGIONE, 2020), establishing the conceptual notions of the connected public sphere (BENKLER, 2020), mediatization (HJARVARD, 2012), permanent campaign (LILLEKER, 2006), and the archetypes of female candidates (PANKE, 2016). The hybrid methodology used combines bibliographic research, documentary research, and content analysis. Preliminary results indicate no ready-made formula to ensure women's victory at the polls. Candidates with different backgrounds, political parties, and municipality sizes adopted electoral strategies that sometimes approached and sometimes distanced themselves. They all exercised caution when dealing with controversial issues related to contemporary feminism during the campaign. In the exercise of their mandate, it was the mayor of the largest city and the most left-wing party who demonstrated a greater commitment to women's historical and urgent agendas.