Corpos desvalidos: representações sobre sexualidade, gênero e moralidade nos processos judiciais de defloramento em marabá (1920-1940)

Abstract

The present paper aims to analyze the representations contained in the legal discourse on gender through the consensual sex crime processes found in the Reference Center in History and Memory of the South and Southeast of Pará (CRHM / UNIFESSPA), from 1920 to 1940, in the municipality of Marabá. It is considered that such discourses, through the provisions of the Penal Code of the Republic, of 1890, projected the image of an ideal woman who carried in her body the sacredness of virginity, created by Christian morality, pressures of the family institution and implicitly, by the legislation homeland. The contradictions between the text of the law and its applicability, stand out in the course of inquiry investigations and processes; thus oscillating between “profane” and “honest” bodies. Therefore, the social representations of underprivileged bodies adorned the female image as mere spectators with regard to Article 267 of the Penal Code. Consequently, it helps us to understand how social representations interfered in the construction of legal truth and in the ways in which the outcomes of criminal proceedings were conducted.