Abjection as an Interruption of the Aesthetic Canon: Body, Semiosis, and Beauty in The Ugly Stepsister (2025)

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.301112612011

• Palavras-chave: -

• Keywords: body; semiosis; abjection; discourse; beauty

• Abstract: This article examines beauty as a hegemonic discourse that operates on bodies through processes of signification that become naturalized and culturally embodied. Through a case study of the feature film The Ugly Stepsister (2025), abjection is approached not merely as an aesthetic or narrative device, but as a semiotic interpretant capable of interrupting the normative canon of beauty and exposing the symbolic violence it exerts upon female corporeality. Adopting a qualitative approach, the study draws on discourse analysis and Charles Sanders Peirce’s triadic semiotics to conceptualize beauty as a category in constant becoming, embedded within open and situated processes of semiosis. The theoretical framework integrates the contributions of Julia Kristeva, who understands abjection as a destabilizing boundary of the symbolic order; Judith Butler, whose work problematizes bodily performativity under normative matrices; David Le Breton, who conceives the body as a semantic filter of experience; and Jean Baudrillard, whose critique of simulacra and fetishization illuminates contemporary regimes of representation. The analysis shows how the abject body functions as a site of rupture in relation to ideals of beauty, youth, and social validation, revealing the fragility of the aesthetic canon and the violence sustaining competition among female bodies. In this sense, abjection emerges as a critical force that introduces a fissure in dominant interpretive processes, enabling alternative modes of sense-making that challenge the naturalization of hegemonic discourses. As a central contribution, the article argues that disruptive cultural content, such as body horror cinema, not only denounces aesthetic hegemony but also activates interpretants capable of reconfiguring the relationship between body, discourse, and experience. This reflection is extended to contemporary models of artificial intelligence, whose training systems tend to statistically reproduce prevailing canons of beauty and normality. Recognizing this dynamic opens a critical dialogue on the need to generate alternative cultural and technological interpretants that expand the realm of what can be seen, thought, and embodied. From this perspective, the body is proposed as an embodied semiotics in continuous becoming, capable of resisting, fracturing, and reimagining the limits of hegemonic discourses