El cuerpo de la pobreza: belleza, fealdad y juventud femenina en la Iglesia Evangélica Pentecostal de Chile (1925-1950)

Abstract

The aim of this article is to know about the conditions and the interpretations of the social construction of beauty and ugliness of the young woman existing in the Pentecostal stories between 1925 and 1950. To achieve this, we resort to the magazine Pentecost Fire. This article is divided into three sections. We begin by describing the social and economic context in which Chilean Pentecostalism develops; a Chilean society where the poor had no chance of getting out of misery. Secondly, we refer to youth and beauty in which a fleeting conception of youth and the denial of physical beauty are evident: youth is a spiritual reality and its physical existence is only a mirage. Finally, we address the female body and the space of misery. This is the struggle in which Pentecostalism tries to convince the young women about the futility of somatic concern, since social reality is conceived as a corporeal plunder; for this reason, the young women are urged to disaffection, condemnation and disagreement of the body between the somatic reality of society and that presented by the Pentecostal community.