ABSTRACT
Notions of power in society are inseparable from questions of gender and sexuality. Although there have been improvements in relation to the ways women in positions of power are described in post-modernist societies, their representation in media discourses is still very dismissive. The semiotic resources used to membership them tend to rely on mythical discourses of motherhood, domesticity, beauty and youth and not on the functional roles they perform.
This chapter discusses how women in positions of power are described and categorised in media narratives, especially in the Brazilian context. By engaging with the journalist discourse, the focus is on the importance of language in generating epistemological claims about women and femininity.
It also demonstrates how female professionals emerge as gendered subjects and how their identity is construed not according to what their function in the workforce is, but mainly through their domestic roles and their physical appearance. The conclusion points to the ways sexist ideologies are materialised in semiotic resources which produce unacceptable stereotypes in relation to women in power. Hopefully, the findings will inspire closer scrutiny of the media content, leading to its informed critique and transformation.
