The red in the construction of Dilma Roussef’s image

Abstract

The production of red-colored senses in the clothes of former President Dilma Rousseff, in the period preceding her first term until her impeachment, is the focus of this article. What we propose is to verify how the presence or absence of the red color of her clothes, in their qualitative, existential and symbolic aspects, act in the construction of the former president’s image. Concerning the red, photos of Dilma from the digital platform of the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo are analyzed in the light of the Peircean semiotics, taking into account the context of her political trajectory. The result we reached, on the red trail, allowed us to glimpse the convenience of using this color as an index of belonging or withdrawing from the Workers’ Party.