Abstract

Introduction

The advance of the new technologies of communication and information (ICT) characterize the transformations of the youth condition. ICTs are the background for the production of new meanings, subjectivities and ways of relating and positioning in the world. Young people are extensive users of digital devices, to the point of being designated as “digital natives”, whose insertion in the world is permeated by new media, significantly impacting this generation, with respect to shared social values and norms ¹1. Giunti G , Baum A , Giunta D , Plazzotta F , Benitez S , Gómez A . Serious games: a concise overview on what they are and their potential applications to healthcare . Stud Health Technol Inform . 2015 ; 216 : 386 - 90 . .

With regard to affective-sexual relations, the experience of young people coexists with the social transformations of contemporaneity and the lingering values derived from the historically constructed patriarchal paradigm that permeates all spheres of reality. Examples of this paradigm are gender stereotypes, whose binary and hierarchical identities underlie inequality between men and women. Such assumptions restrict the formulation of policies and practices consistent with the needs and motivations of the new generation, disregarding the multiplicity of experiences and the leading role of this social group. In this sense, it is necessary to prioritize communication strategies that enable the free and democratic mobilization of knowledge.

Violence is a phenomenon of high prevalence and has had an impact on the quality of life of the young population. In Brazil, young people are the main victims of homicides for violence ²2. Cerqueira D , Lima RS , Bueno S , Valencia LI , Hanashiro O , Machado PHG , et al . Atlas da violência 2017 . Brasília, DF : IPEA ; 2017 . . With regard to gender violence, at the global level, 30% of girls aged between 15 and 19 years experience violence in their relationships ³3. World Health Organization . Preventing intimate partner and sexual violence against women: taking action and generating evidence . Geneva : WHO ; 2012 . . A study conducted in nine countries, with 24,000 women, suggests that intimate partner violence affects more adolescents and young women when compared to adults ³3. World Health Organization . Preventing intimate partner and sexual violence against women: taking action and generating evidence . Geneva : WHO ; 2012 . . In Brazil, a study carried out in 10 urban centers revealed that 86.9% of the young people surveyed suffered violence while 86.8% committed some type of violence during an affective relationship ⁴4. Stöckl H , March L , Pallitto C , Garcia-Moreno C . Intimate partner violence among adolescents and young women: prevalence and associated factors in nine countries: a cross-sectional study . BMC Public Healt . 2014 ; 14 : 751 . .

Gender-based violence is socially produced and directly related to the historical and economic process of formation of society and the state. Thus, social institutions, through the different possibilities of communication, convey and produce ideologies that can imprint either a conservative or a transforming sense of the dominant conceptions. Gender inequality has compromised the health of men and women, being present across all aspects of life, legitimizing the oppression that manifests itself in the various violent acts.

The advent of digital culture, like the social spaces and social times of the internet, plays an important role in the constitution of the subjects, since it produces discourses and carries symbols generated in the mesh of language and culture ⁵5. Lévi P . A inteligência coletiva: por uma antropologia do ciberespaço . 4a ed. São Paulo : Loyola ; 2003 . . Thus, it is imperative to understand the social spaces in which young people live and relate, seeking new uses for the promotion of disruptive dialogic spaces, allowing reflective conditions for the development of autonomy and equity in gender relations.

This study highlights the analysis of the application of an online game as a mobilizing artifact of the debate and reflection on the themes: sex, sexuality and violence in relationships. In view of the need for innovative practices for a generalized approach to sexual and reproductive health, the Papo Reto game was developed as a research product ³3. World Health Organization . Preventing intimate partner and sexual violence against women: taking action and generating evidence . Geneva : WHO ; 2012 . with the purpose of promoting the leading role and autonomy of adolescents in this field. It envisages the mobilization of critical reflection through a ludic environment free of preconceived responses, prioritizing themes whose complexity and social stigma hampers their approach by traditional social institutions, such as family and school.

The present study conceives the game as a social space and time through which experiences and informants of affective-sexual relations between young people emerge and intersect. Thus, this article frames the contents produced in the interaction with the game showing the conceptions about affective-sexual relations. It aims to analyze, using the gender category and based on the narratives of young people produced in the game Papo Reto , how the discourse about affective-sexual relationships is configured.

Method

The study is part of the results of post-doctoral training. The original research involved the process of validation, application and evaluation of the game Papo Reto⁶6. Souza V , Gazzinelli MF , Soares NA , Fernandes MM , Oliveira RN , Fonseca RMGS . O jogo como estratégia para abordagem da sexualidade com adolescentes: reflexões teórico-metodológicas . Rev Bras Enferm . 2018 ; 70 ( 2 ): 376 - 83 . , whose subjects were young, high school students from São Paulo and Belo Horizonte. Aspects related to both ludic and formative elements of learning around the themes sex, sexuality and violence were objects of previous studies of the application of the game Papo Reto⁶6. Souza V , Gazzinelli MF , Soares NA , Fernandes MM , Oliveira RN , Fonseca RMGS . O jogo como estratégia para abordagem da sexualidade com adolescentes: reflexões teórico-metodológicas . Rev Bras Enferm . 2018 ; 70 ( 2 ): 376 - 83 .

7. Fonseca RMGS , Santos DLA , Gessner R , Fornari LF , Oliveira RNG , Schoenmaker MC . Gênero, sexualidade e violência: percepção de adolescentes mobilizadas em um jogo online . Rev Bras Enferm . 2018 ; 71 Supl 1 : 607 - 14 .^-88. Oliveira RNG , Gessner R , Souza V , Fonseca RMGS . Limites e possibilidades de um jogo online para a construção de conhecimento de adolescentes sobre a sexualidade . Cienc Saude Colet . 2016 ; 21 ( 8 ): 2383 - 92 . , so the present study does not contemplate this scope.

It is a case study, with a qualitative approach, developing the analysis of the narratives of young people about the affective sexual relations mobilized in the game Papo Reto , in São Paulo. The game is anchored in the problematization of reality, leading roles, free expression and interaction, in order to motivate the (re) construction of knowledge in the field of sexuality ⁶6. Souza V , Gazzinelli MF , Soares NA , Fernandes MM , Oliveira RN , Fonseca RMGS . O jogo como estratégia para abordagem da sexualidade com adolescentes: reflexões teórico-metodológicas . Rev Bras Enferm . 2018 ; 70 ( 2 ): 376 - 83 . . Table 1 presents a brief description.

The case studied a group of young people, students of a Public School of São Paulo / SP, aged between 14 and 18 years, who experienced the game Papo Reto for a period of six months. The invitation to the participants was made personally to all the students in contacts with the school. Those who showed interest and availability participated in the study.

A total of 67 young people were registered, among which 27 entered the game. Six months after the registration, the data generated by the interaction with the game were extracted for analysis purposes, constituting the empirical material for eliciting the narratives.

The corpus was produced from data composed of the discursive answers to the game situations and problems and by the comments of the adolescents, compared to the responses of the peers. The dialogues stored together in the game by the adolescents were submitted to content analysis ⁹9. Bardin L . Análise de conteúdo . São Paulo : Edições 70 ; 2011 . , based on the gender category. The study was cleared by the Ethics Committee of the Nursing School of the University of São Paulo USP (CAAE 01850612.0.0000.5149).

In the 1980’s, Joan Scott ¹⁰10. Scott J . Gênero: uma categoria útil para análise histórica . Recife : SOS corpo ; 1991 . defined gender as “constitutive element of social relations, based on perceived differences between the sexes”. From the effects of gender as a social device, subjects are historically defined on the basis of sex. Thus, gender constitutes the primordial field in which asymmetric relations of power are articulated, based on socially constructed differences, but hegemonically conceived as essential, natural and unquestionable ¹⁰10. Scott J . Gênero: uma categoria útil para análise histórica . Recife : SOS corpo ; 1991 . .

Gender is not an effect of sex, but it understands sex itself as a category signified by the social apparatus of gender, so that sex would not have a supposed pre-gender essential nature, but would be one of the effects of discourse and regulatory practices of power, that establish the hierarchies of gender in the social imaginary revolving around body and sex ¹¹11. Butler J . Problemas de gênero: feminismo e subversão da identidade . Rio de Janeiro : Editora Civilização Brasileira ; 2017 . . The methodological framework of gender studies enables an analysis of social phenomena as an effect of historically engendered power relations, a perspective that allows questioning for purposes of critical analysis, the hegemonically understood discourses as pre-established truths ¹⁰10. Scott J . Gênero: uma categoria útil para análise histórica . Recife : SOS corpo ; 1991 .^,1212. Focault M . História da sexualidade 1. A vontade de saber . Rio de Janeiro : Graal ; 1993 . .

The conception that guides the present study considers the term “youth” beyond conceptions centered on chronological and biological aspects. The choice of the term “young” aims to overcome the biological vision that is implicit in the historical use of the term adolescence. In this perspective, subjects do not have fixed and impermeable identities, but are crossed by intersubjectivities engendered in a continuous and dialectical construction process ¹³13. Silva C , Lopes R . Adolescência e juventude: entre conceitos e políticas públicas . Cad Ter Ocup UFSCar . 2009 ; 17 ( 2 ): 87 - 106 . .

It is important to consider the aspects that relate to their social insertion and to the relations of power established by gender inequities that bring to light important hierarchical polarities that need to be problematized in the critical apprehension about social phenomena. Generation defines the place occupied by young people, so that these subjects are part of society and the world, and it is necessary to connect them to larger social structures that have impacted their relations, such as wars, social movements and the development of ICT, which facilitated the rapid circulation of information and characterized new configurations of relationship and social insertion ¹⁴14. Minayo MCS . Amor e violência: um paradoxo das relações de namoro e do “ficar” entre jovens brasileiros . Rio de Janeiro : Fiocruz ; 2011 .^,1515. Egry EY , Fonseca RMGS , Oliveira MAC . Ciência, Saúde Coletiva e Enfermagem: destacando as categorias gênero e geração na episteme da práxis . Rev Bras Enferm . 2013 ; 66 Esp : 119 - 33 . .

Results and discussion

The dynamics of the game “ Papo Reto ” is based on the positioning of players around stories presented taking the shape of problematic situations ( figure 2 ). These situations pose challenges that range from the construction of outcomes to the delivery of opinions. The game Papo Reto proposes the interaction between young people for the reconstruction or re-signification of the narratives. Narrative, which can be thought as the place where mediations occur, inscribes a temporal dimension of human magnitude. Thus, “the act of narrating, through the means, can reveal legitimations, values, representations and faults, fundamental data for the process of understanding and reading the world.” The empirical categories as presented below synthesize the discourse revealed in the narratives, shaping conceptions about their affective-sexual relations ¹⁶16. Resende F . O jornalismo e suas narrativas: as brechas do discurso e as possibilidades do encontro . Galaxia . 2009 ; ( 18 ): 31 - 43 . .

The normalization of stereotypes as a discursive effect of gender in the conceptions of adolescents

The analysis of the narratives mobilized by the interaction of adolescents during the game, in the light of the gender category, revealed discourses related to the reproduction of social norms and gender stereotypes in affective-sexual relationships. These patterns influence the understanding of different assumed roles, having polarized models that are associated with either feminine or masculine identities as references that are reproduced in their relationships.

The paradigm of modern science established conceptions based on the dichotomy between nature and culture. Patriarchy has historically consolidated the association of the feminine with nature and the masculine with culture, grounding the binary and hierarchical opposition between the sexes. Thus values and characteristics related to nature and the feminine, such as emotion, intuition and body would need to be controlled, dominated by the action of culture, masculine. This discourse is reproduced by the subjects of the study, establishing patterns of behavior understood as inherent to a supposed essential nature of the sexes. The discourse of the gender hierarchy is also reproduced in the conception about the sexual relation, whose conduction would supposedly be the domain of the masculine part.

Under the perspective of feminist studies, the neutrality of the body is questioned, criticized, since it is eminently political. Gender, as an ideological device, produces culturally intelligible stereotypes and patterns of identities that are recognizable as normal, and therefore desirable. The surveillance of bodies is performed by the political-ideological structure, which translates into the various social institutions (such as school, family, church and medical science) that establish social patterns of living sexuality and regulating the way of being and acting in the public space. In this way, the performativity of gender is continually reiterated thus materializing what that is named by it ¹¹11. Butler J . Problemas de gênero: feminismo e subversão da identidade . Rio de Janeiro : Editora Civilização Brasileira ; 2017 . .

The discourse that was evidenced refers to the rejection of gender roles that escape socially desirable binary models. Patterns that establish a culturally desirable system of continuity between body, sex, gender, desire, and sexual practice are established in the register of compulsory heterosexuality ¹¹11. Butler J . Problemas de gênero: feminismo e subversão da identidade . Rio de Janeiro : Editora Civilização Brasileira ; 2017 . . Identities that escape this “coherence” end up not being socially recognized as understandable, incurring the risk of being interpreted as abnormal or immoral and supposedly, should be corrected, treated as pathology or even concealed, in “respect for society”, according to referred to in the statements.

Homophobia is the expression of fear in relation to the loss of the hegemonic gender model, that is, of identification with the socially valued models of man and woman. It relates to the idea of abjection ¹¹11. Butler J . Problemas de gênero: feminismo e subversão da identidade . Rio de Janeiro : Editora Civilização Brasileira ; 2017 . , in which those identities that are not consistent with heteronormativity are placed on the margins of society, subsumed by the right to citizenship and democratic and participatory spaces for the construction of public policies, to guarantee a just and dignified life in the various social spheres. Study that analyzes the construction of hegemonic masculinity ¹⁷17. Welzer-Lang D . A construção do masculino: a construção do masculino: dominação das mulheres e homofobia . Rev Estud Fem . 2001 ; 9 ( 2 ): 460 - 82 . defines homophobia as

Thus, sexual and gender identities are related in a social process of regulating sexuality by gender censorship. Different from sexual identity (related to sexual practice, desire and pleasure) but not independent of it, gender identity refers to the identification of subjects socially and historically with what is socially understood as male and female in different societies and historical contexts ¹⁸18. Louro GL . Gênero, sexualidade e educação: uma perspectiva pós-estruturalista . São Paulo : Vozes ; 2014 . . Both gender dynamics and sex, identities are multiple, are in a process of construction and will never be completely finished, since we are historical beings, in constant transformation ¹¹11. Butler J . Problemas de gênero: feminismo e subversão da identidade . Rio de Janeiro : Editora Civilização Brasileira ; 2017 . .

Narratives and discourses not only enunciate phenomena, but institute them, also determining subjective identities engendered in the field of social signs and norms ⁵5. Lévi P . A inteligência coletiva: por uma antropologia do ciberespaço . 4a ed. São Paulo : Loyola ; 2003 . , related to the dominant ideological political structure ¹⁰10. Scott J . Gênero: uma categoria útil para análise histórica . Recife : SOS corpo ; 1991 . . These discursive orders even institute what must be said and silenced. With regard to the discourses of young people, compulsory heterosexuality ¹¹11. Butler J . Problemas de gênero: feminismo e subversão da identidade . Rio de Janeiro : Editora Civilização Brasileira ; 2017 . appears as an important theme, evidencing an anomalous representation of the sexual identities that escape this logic. Although in contemporary times the discourse in the various media evidences multiple forms of living sexuality, the ambivalence of meanings is revealed in narratives that enunciate and reiterate the antagonistic binarism of hegemonic patterns ¹⁸18. Louro GL . Gênero, sexualidade e educação: uma perspectiva pós-estruturalista . São Paulo : Vozes ; 2014 . .

In game dynamics, responses are expected to be commented and evaluated by peers. Those that refer to the discourse of gender equity, predominantly, were evaluated as positive. The following testimonies refer to comments on the view that sexual freedom should be oriented differently for boys and girls. These reports reveal a thematic divergence from the reproductive discourse of the gender stereotypes previously discussed.

Gender is understood as a device that results from a process of repeating a set of rules. However, at the same time that language acts in the maintenance of this discourse, it presents a destabilizing potential ⁸8. Oliveira RNG , Gessner R , Souza V , Fonseca RMGS . Limites e possibilidades de um jogo online para a construção de conhecimento de adolescentes sobre a sexualidade . Cienc Saude Colet . 2016 ; 21 ( 8 ): 2383 - 92 . . Digital social networks configure spaces for mediation of repetition, as well as questioning of symbols, values and norms produced by gender. Cyberspace allowed the engagement of non-political actors in issues representing previously experienced difficulties. At the same time, the virtual world forms the background to the various gender-based violence expressed online. The ambivalence of meanings that the norms and gender stereotypes assume in the discourse of the youngsters, translates as a contradictory and dialectical process, inherent to the social transformations ¹¹11. Butler J . Problemas de gênero: feminismo e subversão da identidade . Rio de Janeiro : Editora Civilização Brasileira ; 2017 .^,1212. Focault M . História da sexualidade 1. A vontade de saber . Rio de Janeiro : Graal ; 1993 . .

A study that evaluated the Papo Reto from workshops performed after the experience with the game, pointed to the interaction between peers as a resource capable of mobilizing emotions, reflections and (re) construction of knowledge. In the free and relaxed environment of games, this process occurs in a freer way than approaches based on pre-established conceptions. The motivation for dialogue and reflection was evidenced between the lines of the adolescents’ reports, about the experience with the game ⁷7. Fonseca RMGS , Santos DLA , Gessner R , Fornari LF , Oliveira RNG , Schoenmaker MC . Gênero, sexualidade e violência: percepção de adolescentes mobilizadas em um jogo online . Rev Bras Enferm . 2018 ; 71 Supl 1 : 607 - 14 . .

In this study, the need for discussion about gender roles and norms makes sense, since the discourses reproduce stereotypes that reiterate hierarchical categories for men and women. Manifestations that are understood as natural in the relationships among young people, among them gender violence, result from uncritical positions towards reality. Thus, any strategy that proposes to deal with intimate partner violence should consider the importance of including symbolic violence ¹⁹19. Bourdieu P . A dominação masculina . 3a ed. Rio de Janeiro : Bertrand Brasil ; 2015 . , whose confrontation must start from the estrangement of the identity and performance marks of gender ⁸8. Oliveira RNG , Gessner R , Souza V , Fonseca RMGS . Limites e possibilidades de um jogo online para a construção de conhecimento de adolescentes sobre a sexualidade . Cienc Saude Colet . 2016 ; 21 ( 8 ): 2383 - 92 . , by means of its de-naturalization.

Gender violence as a marker of relationships between young people: from experience to trivialization

The changes that new media represent in the lives of young people have been subjected to studies ²⁰20. Livingstone S . Internet literacy: a negociação dos jovens com as novas oportunidades on-line . MATRIZes . 2011 ; 4 ( 2 ): 11 - 42 .^,2121. Gobbi MC . Nativos digitais: autores na sociedade tecnológica . São Paulo : Ed. Cultura Acadêmica ; 2010 . . The internet constitutes a field that reveals and at the same time, establishes meanings that influence ways of being and relating, configuring symbols, values and social norms of contemporaneity, with deep meanings in the field of affective-sexual relations ²²22. Unger LGS , Santos C . Curti, comentei, compartilhei: modos de subjetivação e relações de gênero em uma rede social digital . Rev Forum Identidades . 2017 ; 23 : 51 - 67 . . Thinking about the disruptive potential of the game also means taking a critical analysis of the discourses mobilized by the game, permeated by ambivalences, contradictions and socially crystallized stereotypes that reiterate and reproduce iniquities and violence in relationships.

The narratives produced in the game highlight the importance of female freedom and autonomy, as exemplified by the following testimonies, which criticize social surveillance of the female body, as well as its reification and subjection to the masculine.

Although this generation has, to some extent, a subversive discourse, with an expression of greater freedom in the field of sexuality, it still reproduces sexist patterns of behavior. This is an expected aspect, since, in the historical transformations, there are dialectical shifts between progress and regression ⁷7. Fonseca RMGS , Santos DLA , Gessner R , Fornari LF , Oliveira RNG , Schoenmaker MC . Gênero, sexualidade e violência: percepção de adolescentes mobilizadas em um jogo online . Rev Bras Enferm . 2018 ; 71 Supl 1 : 607 - 14 .^,1414. Minayo MCS . Amor e violência: um paradoxo das relações de namoro e do “ficar” entre jovens brasileiros . Rio de Janeiro : Fiocruz ; 2011 . . In the statements that follow, the girls used the interaction environment of the game to express personal experiences of violence in relationships. These findings, besides evidencing the game as a channel of communication in which the players identified openness to share experiences, indicate that the conceptions about the female autonomy, expressed in other situations, do not always translate into the concrete experience of egalitarian relations.

Despite the expression of personal experiences of psychological violence by the players, the corpus of analysis does not allow to show if they recognize these situations as such. However, sharing these experiences indicates their recognition as a problem, something that bothers and generates suffering. Psychological violence is evident as the predominant form of manifestation in these dialogues that denounce abusive relationships. However, these expressions were neither commented nor evaluated by the peers. The situation that motivated the first testimony triggered that of many other girls, who shared similar experiences. This aspect highlights the need of the subjects to share experiences, opening channels of communication for the visibility of the problem.

The unequal relations of power are found in the genesis of violence when perpetrated in the sphere of interpersonal relations. The meanings that conform the social image of the feminine are rooted in these relations, determining subalternity and domination. When practiced between intimate partners, violence ends up being part of everyday life, understood as essential and inherent in these relationships. Such an understanding becomes a contradictory meaning, since it is a type of violence materialized in relationships based on affection.

Violence among intimate partners assumes several meanings for young people, including the inherent sense of ambivalence. Thus, it is urgent to take the problem as a focus of studies in the various areas of human, social and collective health sciences. A study indicated that, as far as physical aggression is concerned, girls are more victimized ¹⁴14. Minayo MCS . Amor e violência: um paradoxo das relações de namoro e do “ficar” entre jovens brasileiros . Rio de Janeiro : Fiocruz ; 2011 . , though they also strike back physically and psychologically. In addition, adolescents often find it difficult to perceive such aggressions as detrimental to their relationship, and often tend to associate controlling and jealous behavior as a sign of love ²³23. Oliveira QBM , Assis SG , Njaine K , Pires TO . Violência física perpetrada por ciúmes no namoro de adolescentes: um recorte de gênero em dez capitais brasileiras . Psic Teor Pesq . 2016 ; 32 ( 3 ): 1 - 12 .^,2424. Cecchetto F , Oliveira QBM , Njaine K , Minayo MCS . Violências percebidas por homens adolescentes na interação afetivo-sexual em dez cidades brasileiras . Interface (Botucatu) . 2016 ; 20 ( 59 ): 853 - 64 . .

The interaction of the youth with the game revealed responses that refer to violent behavior. These responses, as well as situations in the game that dealt with situations of violence, were often neither problematized nor questioned by peers, understanding them as normal or acceptable situations. This finding is observed in the following report of a girl about a situation of the game about sexual violence, in which the partner touches her breasts, against her will.

When not recognized, violence reflects a broader process of production and reproduction of symbolic violence, naturalized by a long historical process of cultural imprinting. These are, therefore, subtle mechanisms of domination and social exclusion used by individuals, groups or institutions ¹⁹19. Bourdieu P . A dominação masculina . 3a ed. Rio de Janeiro : Bertrand Brasil ; 2015 . . In this line of conception about violence, some testimonies reveal how girls are being blamed for the violence experienced. Thus, female behavior is what would determine violence against women, being identified as triggering these situations:

The testimonies highlight the feminist blame for gender violence manifested in online relationships. Even women historically introjected such discourses, socially engendered by the symbol of the profane woman. The discourse of rape culture is also evidenced as violence that operates subtly through purely symbolic ways of language and communication that justify rape ¹⁹19. Bourdieu P . A dominação masculina . 3a ed. Rio de Janeiro : Bertrand Brasil ; 2015 . .

The logic of the relationship of male domination comes to impose and inculcate in men and women the entire negative properties attributed to feminine values. This worldview is continually confirmed and legitimized by the very same practices it determines, conditioning the whole society to incorporate it. Thus, male domination has all the favorable conditions for its full exercise, since its primacy is affirmed and incorporated throughout the social structure, as a result of ideological mechanisms that hide or conceal reality ¹⁹19. Bourdieu P . A dominação masculina . 3a ed. Rio de Janeiro : Bertrand Brasil ; 2015 . .

In this study, the discourses show a banalization and naturalization in relation to certain acts of aggression, which are not understood as violence by the subjects, aspect that invisibilizes the phenomenon as a problem for this social group. The relationships among adolescents are part of a context of relationships influenced by gender models and norms, which constitute inequities, determinants of violence and their invisibility. Psychological, sexual violence and violence in cyberspace appear in the discourse as common situations, trivialized and justified by female guilt.

The social image around affective relations refers to idealistic conceptions of relationship. The testimonies, especially of the girls, point to a discourse that is related to the socially constructed ideology based on the symbol of romantic love.

From this imaginary, relations are conceived as monogamous and conflict-free. It is important to emphasize that the idealization of relations curtails the development of assertive attitudes for conflict resolution.

The findings reveal the reproduction of patterns of idealized relationships, which bring the idea of fidelity as central in conceptions about affective-sexual relations. The testimonies also revealed jealousy and infidelity as triggers of situations of physical violence. It is important to emphasize the importance of media influence on the production of socialized values between this generation and how the representation of affective-sexual relations and violence in these relationships is conveyed, problematized or naturalized by young people.

A Brazilian study, which analyzed the role of jealousy in relationships among young people, points to convergent findings. Respondents presented significant agreement with the idea that infidelity or jealousy would justify the occurrence of aggression in a relationship. In addition to being valued as a manifestation of care and proof of love, jealousy is an important mobilizer of conflicts and violence in the affective-sexual relationships among young people ²¹21. Gobbi MC . Nativos digitais: autores na sociedade tecnológica . São Paulo : Ed. Cultura Acadêmica ; 2010 .

22. Unger LGS , Santos C . Curti, comentei, compartilhei: modos de subjetivação e relações de gênero em uma rede social digital . Rev Forum Identidades . 2017 ; 23 : 51 - 67 .^-2323. Oliveira QBM , Assis SG , Njaine K , Pires TO . Violência física perpetrada por ciúmes no namoro de adolescentes: um recorte de gênero em dez capitais brasileiras . Psic Teor Pesq . 2016 ; 32 ( 3 ): 1 - 12 . . Studies ²⁵25. Gessner R , Fonseca RMGS , Oliveira RNG . Violência contra adolescentes: uma análise à luz das categorias gênero e geração . Rev Esc Enferm . 2014 ; 48 Esp : 102 - 8 .^,2626. Brancaglioni BCA , Fonseca RMGS . Intimate partner violence in adolescence: an analysis of gender and generation . Rev Bras Enferm . 2016 ; 69 ( 5 ): 890 - 905 . carried out with adolescents in Curitiba (Brazil) revealed that many suffer and perpetrate violence, but do not recognize it as such, understanding the aggressions as natural, commonplace acts and inherent in the alleged essential feminine and masculine natures.

Punishment for infidelity constitutes a historically constituted fact aided by cultural symbols and norms, based on patriarchy, authorizing violence as a form of punishment of female infidelity. In this study, physical violence triggered by infidelity appears crystallized and not problematized. This aspect reiterates a discourse of primacy of male domination inscribed and reproduced in the imaginary of boys and girls, both products of the same androcentric social structure ¹⁹19. Bourdieu P . A dominação masculina . 3a ed. Rio de Janeiro : Bertrand Brasil ; 2015 . .

The following statements make reference to patterns of relationship characteristic of this generation, in which the agreement between peers is what determines the differences of commitment between “dating” and “hooking up”. Even in courtship, adolescents expressed multiple possibilities for relationships, depending on prior agreement. Thus, this category reveals loyalty as an important issue, as represented below.

It is important to emphasize that, despite the revealed ambivalences and complexities, some critical manifestations signal the (re) significance of conceptions about affective-sexual relations. Assertive conceptions of conflict resolution that point to the critique of idealized patterns are expressed, above all, by girls.

Among the responses evaluated negatively by the pairs, signaled as “unlike”, those with violent content or those that reiterate gender inequalities predominated. These responses have sometimes been commented upon by a discourse of refusal and negative peer evaluation. In some situations, such statements were answered with comments expressing a change of opinion or apology. The following are examples of some of these dialogues generated by the game.

The findings reveal the potential of the games in the construction of dialogical relations. Such relations can constitute a fertile soil for the subversion of hegemonic conceptions of gender in affective-sexual relations. The narratives reveal important aspects of their experiences that were mobilized by the process of interaction with the game. The findings reveal reflexive potentialities arising from this interaction, but also the need for interventions that go beyond the initial goals of the game: the problematization of intimate partner violence and gender inequity in these relationships.

In this context, it is important to develop strategies for coping with violence among young people, especially in the Latin American context, given the scarcity of studies and strategies on the subject. In this sense, the perspective of gender, as well as the ludic approach, emerge as innovative possibilities to promote the critical reflection of the subjects to reconstruct relations, interpretations and positions about reality.

Although innovation has become very evident in the reference to new media and technological interfaces, it is also present in the social impact of these technologies and in the new configuration of the subjects producing and receiving the information. The meanings shared by young people in the digital social networks, reproduced in the game Papo Reto , engender the production of meanings and subjectivities that support the representations around the body, relationships and social and subjective identities. Thus, thinking about its potential for the problematization of discursive processes fosters challenges for the (re) construction of stereotypes, norms and crystallized practices of inequalities.

Previous study, revealed the (re) signification of knowledge, promoted by the leading role, irreverence and freedom of the playfulness. It is a logic that, “devoid of educational interests, educates all the while it transforms through experience” ⁸8. Oliveira RNG , Gessner R , Souza V , Fonseca RMGS . Limites e possibilidades de um jogo online para a construção de conhecimento de adolescentes sobre a sexualidade . Cienc Saude Colet . 2016 ; 21 ( 8 ): 2383 - 92 . (p. 2389). The game fostered a symbolic immersion that promoted the projection of the player in its own history. The shared tension, interaction, anonymity, symbolic representation and the progression of difficulties were aspects inherent in playfulness, recognized by the players as the subversive potential of the game “ Papo Reto ” to discuss with peers in a ludic way regarding socially veiled themes ⁸8. Oliveira RNG , Gessner R , Souza V , Fonseca RMGS . Limites e possibilidades de um jogo online para a construção de conhecimento de adolescentes sobre a sexualidade . Cienc Saude Colet . 2016 ; 21 ( 8 ): 2383 - 92 . .

Final considerations

To unveil the discourse that is revealed in the lines of the Papo Reto game reveals concrete social needs related to a better understanding of the affective-sexual relations among young people, as well as to the development of innovative strategies to confront violence in this context, a phenomenon still scarcely investigated in the national context.

Although the present study does not deplete the analytical possibilities that the findings allow, the empirical categories revealed by the gender look reveal the affective sexual relations as a contradictory phenomenon, permeated by conceptions that both surpass and reiterate gender violence and inequality. In mobilizing the expression of these discourses, the game emerges as an artifact whose mediation of language and experiences is revealed as a dialogical possibility for the construction of meanings and new modes of subjectivation about affective-sexual relations. The results also show concrete social needs, related to the problematization of conceptions that involve the construction of gender, based on binary hierarchies, giving foundations to violence.

However, at this stage of the study the debate about violence is expressed very timidly on the occasions when the theme was mobilized, whether in the players’ responses or in the problem situations presented in the game. The reconstruction of these conceptions requires the search for a procedural and dialectical path for the development of communicative action, based on the promotion of gender equity. Thus, it is necessary that disruptive strategies allow the debate, reflection and dissemination of information about this problem in the different spheres of reality.

Acknowledgments

To the São Paulo Research Foundation-FAPESP, by granting a postdoctoral fellowship (Process # 2013/06796-1)

References

Publication Dates

History