When the Brazilian version of the telenovela Carrossel aired in 2012, I was 10 years old. I remember clearly that when it was 8pm at night I had to be sitting on the sofa with my eyes glued to the television. This telenovela was produced by SBT and featured several already very famous children from the network and was, without a doubt, a great success. There wasn't a day at school where we didn't get together to talk about the previous night's episode.
I even remember the rivalries between the characters in the telenovela and how we took that as real life. I was Valéria, my best friend was Alicia, my cousin was Maria Joaquina and even my neighbor had his favorite character, Paulo. And the fever went far beyond make-believe and turned into consumption.
When this topic about the consumption of telenovelas by children was brought to class, I was bombarded by all these memories. My drawers were full of sticker albums of the characters from Carrossel, I had clothes hangers with the uniform from the Mundial School (where the characters studied) and every day I left the house with Valéria's tiara in my hair. And I also remember that those who didn't have stickers to exchange at recess were always excluded from the games.
Looking back and understanding how telenovelas work beyond entertainment, but rather as an engineering of a society based on consumption, is very shocking. When Brittany brought her experience with the telenovela “Patito Feo” to class and commented on how the groups of characters also divided the children who were viewers, I identified enormously and realized how this is a super interesting topic to study.
In fact, “Cirilo” was used to bully many black boys and “Laura” was widely used to practice fatphobia towards fat girls, in my time. I see that today, these productions receive a much more careful look, but it is even more important to study and understand how what the telenovelas represent impacts the lives of these young viewers.
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