A story (comic) in defense of women:an critical analysis of the Cartilha Maria da Penha

Abstract

The fight against violence against women is one of the main struggles of contemporary societies. Any type of violence against women (physical, sexual, psychological, property, moral) can no longer be tolerated and, in this sense, the legal field has offered important instruments to curb and, mainly, to punish aggressors, with emphasis on Law 11,340/06, which was named Lei Maria da Penha. With the purpose of contributing to the educational process of new generations, the Academia Paulista de Magistrados launched Cartilha Maria da Penha, a didactic publication in comic book format, aimed especially at children. In this sense, the objective of this study is to present the general characteristics of the aforementioned publication and carry out a critical analysis of the discursive strategies used to promote debate around the theme of violence against women. From the analysis we found that the graphic-narrative resources typical of the comic book language were used only in their most basic expression; it is also necessary to consider that, in the case of a thematic inherent to women's reality, the fact that the booklet was produced mostly by men, revealed controversial approaches, as well as political insufficiencies in the fight to defend women.