Left supporters, militancy and clothing consumption

Abstract

This work comes from a completed master’s research (UFRPE, 2016), on the statements about consumption practices of 12 people affiliated to political parties understood as left: Party Workers (PT) and Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL). The answers were obtained through in-depth interviews and the consumption of clothing products is the focus presented here. Thinking about what the body wears, its origin, its impacts and reverberations, is a way of reflected political expression (DOUGLAS; ISHERWOOD [1979] 2013). They are everyday practices, identity constructions (DUBAR, 1997; 2009) and beliefs communicated from dress, in a specific space and time (CAMPBELL, 2002), which can be systematized and understood from a semiotic perspective (GREIMAS; COURTÉS, 1979) . Thus, clothing was not only an item discussed in itself, but the theme raised associations with narrations about lifestyles, forms of acquisition, considerations about modes of production, in addition to the most common ones regarding the brand and price. Although membership of the parties provides, to some extent, reflections on production and the economic system; the statements revealed that the practices of the members are guided by their life trajectories and their approach to social movements that dialogue with the parties, but are not necessarily guided by them. The being on the left was not the main determinant, but the lines and lines of the discourse worn and narrated during the interviews in which questions about the consumption of goods and products were highlighted.