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XUXAVISION Programmed Euphoria UXA WAS A NATIONAL celebrity before she began her television career , but it was television that conferred on her the status of a star. It is in the context of that medium that the mass audience identification with her image has emerged. Beginning with Xuxa's first television programfor children, the "Clube da Crian~a" (Kids' Club), which was broadcast on the Manchete network from 1983 until she moved to the Globo network in 1986, she built on the already established narrative of the fashion model, sexual icon, and girlfriend of Pele. Xuxa's messages about gender roles and race remained essentially the same, but they were clarified and elaborated upon by new elements that were added to the star's image as well as by the medium itself, its manner of transmitting information, and the expanded audience it brought her. As it turned out, the transgressive-reactionary figure Xuxa had earlier exploited transferred very successfully to television. One of the ways in which Xuxa's television 49 50 CHAPTER TWO persona works is by inspiring a cultish devotion. Xuxacentrism , or the intense focus on her person seen in the shows-especially the later, more extravagant "Xou da Xuxa" on Globo-is one of the more striking characteristics of the phenomenon. At the center of the camera's lens, Xuxa functions as an agent of transcendence, creating a television experience that entertains and moves viewers as it trivializes the feelings they are invited to project on her. Xuxa's image is built upon cultural anxiety-about gender roles, about race, about Brazil's first world-third world identity-and upon uncertainty about the nation's future, which is symbolized by its children. Xuxa invites viewers not to contemplate those concerns but to relinquish responsibility for them. The pleasurable energy thus released is then channeled toward the consumerism Xuxa fosters among children and adults alike. Her television programs promote consumption as if Xuxa were an unusually insatiable type of idol, as the media texts often call her. Brazil's tribute to its idol is paid in a generation of children virtually reared by the reactionary and commercial messages of TV Globo and the "Xou da Xuxa." The media texts describe Xuxa's television style as naughty, irreverent, even "revolutionary." Yet an overwhelming ideological conservatism pervades the messages her television programs convey. Xuxa's "revolutionary " style is, in fact, no more than a betterarticulated version of what she represented before her television debut. Xuxa's so-called irreverent approach to hosting a children's program and her defiance of the advice of educators and child psychologists stand not for subversion but rather for a kind of permissiveness. Xuxavision: Programmed Euphoria 51 Xuxa's style is consistent with her function of validating conflicting attitudes and values, for example by permitting her public to reconcile the erotic content of her television programs with their orientation toward an audience of children. Xuxa's "spontaneous" and "natural " approach encourages impulsive behavior and masks the fact that the television environment is actually quite limited and controlled. The style issue was widely discussed in the media when Xuxa began hosting the "Clube da Crian~a" on Manchete in 1983. What was deemed her "revolutionary" approach enabled Xuxa to embody stereotypical femininity, to promote an all-white ideal, to cultivate the entertainment function of television at the expense of television's other potential purposes and to approach children as full-fledged consumers. The childlike quality that had already been established as an important part ofXuxa's appeal is the element that led to her work with children. Mauricio Sherman, a producer at Manchete, thought that her "natural, childlike manner" would make Xuxa a good candidate for host on a children's show the network was developing. Sherman explained, "I saw Xuxa in the hall and I realized that the so-called sex symbol was a child. Men would approach her expecting a woman and they would find a toy. It was hard to confront Xuxa's sexuality without perceiving a certain ingenuousness." I Xuxa reportedly responded to the suggestion that she host a children's show by saying, "A kid's program just isn't my style."2 Her mother is quoted as calling it "a crazy idea." 3 It is, of course, difficult to maintain Xuxa's erotic appeal in a context involving actual children; in the early stages of its development, her television personality came across as rather inconsistent. The dual image that Xuxa...

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