How to be a Ragazza

The sexualization of everyday life is currently more than a reality; it is a fact to be taken into account in adolescent development. Given its widespread expansion, it has become established as a determining factor in the construction of identities. In Portugal, the relationship with the media is recent, mainly due to the repression of the dictatorship (1933-74), which contributed to various social delays. We therefore aim to contribute to knowledge about the production of media content for teenage girls in Portugal, to understand the discursive constructions available on sexuality and female identity, and to explore the implications for girls of these discourses of self-construction. The results of the Foucauldian Discourse Analysis of Ragazza's content point to discourses similar to those found in previous foreign literature (e.g., Brown Travis, Meginnis & Bardari, 2000; Jackson, 2005a; Jackson & Westrupp, 2010), combining sexuality, identity, and appearance. These allow us to conclude that when a girl enters adolescence, she already has a repertoire of roles, scripts, and functions that she must take into account in order to achieve a (heterosexual) relationship.