Caxuxa comics and their messages to children: considerations about the child’s body in Cirandinha magazine (1950s)

ABSTRACT Cirandinha magazine circulated in Brazil in the 1950s and aimed to educate and entertain girls. For about a decade, this publication conveyed specific ways of being, feeling, and behaving to readers, taking part in childhood education. This article discusses one of the comics published by illustrator Giselda Melo, presenting Caxuxa, a black girl. The objectives are to identify and analyze the historical and pedagogical processes of children’s body education using childhood representations in the magazine’s texts and images. The adventures of Caxuxa, manifested in her gestures, speeches, and behaviors, allow a discussion, in the context of cultural history, of her ambiguities, ruptures, and contradictions when compared to the values and moralizing lessons disseminated in other sections of the magazine. As a result, we conclude that Caxuxa is an expressive character for understanding the broader educational processes inscribed underbodies in childhood.