[A reading of gender: representations of normality in the magazine Vamos Ler!, 1936-1948].

This research note is the result of an investigation into the circulation of normality as a category of mental health among the lay population. Based on the hypothesis that the appropriation of discourse from medical categories is marked by a polyphony of meanings and not by homogeneity, this project analyzed the variety magazine Vamos Ler! (1936-1948), which featured active participation by its readers in correspondence sections. The subjectivity contained in the letters published in the magazine reveals that the medical discourse was not hegemonic in the lay definition of normality, emphasizing the presence of other discourses (including the experiences of individual readers) which assumed the condition of truth in constructing representations of normal men and women.