O ethos de Thiago Schutz e a reverberação da representação da mulher em interações digitais polêmicas

Abstract

This dissertation aims to investigate, within the argumentative, rhetorical, and discursive dimensions, supported by digital discourse analysis, the image construction of a YouTube coach known for disseminating redpill content, and his influence on the propagation of social interpretations of women among users interacting through comments on his shorts. The core research problem can be succinctly stated as describing the ethos projected by Thiago Schutz in his shorts and examining whether this ethos mobilizes representations of women that resonate within user interactions. On the discursive level, we utilize the concept of ethos developed by Maingueneau (2008, 2008b, 2016, 2020) along with related categories of generic scene and scenography, which helped us comprehend and delineate the discursive image projected by the enunciator and its contextual foundation. In the rhetorical and argumentative dimensions, we selected the category of analogy as systematized by Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca (2005), a highly effective analytical tool that allowed us to discern the texture of the ethos projected by Thiago Schutz. On the discursive and argumentative planes, we grounded our research in Amossy’s theory of Polemics (2017), emphasizing the notion of polemical interaction and the categories of dichotomization, polarization, and disqualification of the opponent, as our analysis focused on antagonistic disputes concerning the social representation of women in public digital spaces. Complementarily, we adopted the Dialogical Model of Argumentation (Plantin 2002, 2008, 2009, 2015; Grácio 2009, 2010, 2020; Damasceno-Morais 2021, 2023) and its categories of Proponent, Opponent, Third Party, argumentative situation and question, as well as stasis, to map the actantial and argumentative configuration of interlocutors within the examined interactions. From the standpoint of digital discourse analysis proposed by Paveau (2021), we mobilized the categories of native digital corpus, composites, technodiscourse, comments, and digital environment, adapting the theoretical framework to the specificities of a corpus entirely produced and circulated online. As a methodological apparatus for corpus formation, we organized the Redpill database, consisting of screenshots from 79 shorts extracted from Thiago Schutz’s official YouTube channel. From this set, four videos were selected, forming the corpus analyzed in this dissertation.The analysis results revealed four successive ethé mobilized by Thiago Schutz: expert (short 1), advisor (short 2), messianic (short 3), and avenger (short 4). A subsequent analytical stage indicated that Schutz’s ethé relied on representations of women as legitimizing instruments of his credibility: primitive woman (expert ethos), opportunistic and caretaker woman (advisor ethos), impure woman (messianic ethos), and aged and victimized woman (avenger ethos). In concluding the analysis, a mimetic effect was observed: within the interactions of each short, participants reiterated representations of women identical or analogous to those articulated by Schutz, even when intending to refute them. Thus, we conclude that the ethé constructed by the coach simultaneously serve as devices for discursive self-legitimization and as vectors spreading social interpretations about women, thereby establishing an epistemic bubble that reinforces his online credibility.