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- Title
Sexuality and Gender at a Brazilian School: Constructing Femininities.
- Authors
de Siqueira, Vera Helena Ferraz; de Sá, Marcia Bastos; da Silva, Andrea Costa; Lima, Ana Cristina Moreira
- Abstract
The main objective of this chapter is to inquire into the various ways in which power is exercised in school, disciplining sexual behaviours and producing femininities. The theoretical basis of the chapter are the feminist post-structuralism and the Foucauldian notions of power, normalisation and discipline, taken as internal voices that control the subjects' practices from decentralised points, inseparable from their subjectivities. The study was conducted in a public school in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, mainly attended by girls; the analysis relied on texts generated through focus groups and observations conducted inside and outside the classrooms. The participants were recruited among teachers in secondary schools who had the role of advisors at those institutions. The data allowed us to identify relations between norms, rules, morality and everyday practices, as well as the establishment and reinforcement of gender hierarchies. Teachers' discourses relied on a heteronormativity axis as evidenced by their representations of a group of girls that identify themselves as homosexual and 'form pairs,' whose behaviour was perceived as a disturbance to the school environment and to its 'normal' routine, which the participants presented as mainly devoted to academic achievement. Attempts to police gender and to restore school to its 'normality' were revealed, as evidenced by the idea that these girls, with time, would go back to their 'natural' heterosexuality. Resistance was identified in this group of girls in relation to the school norms regulating gender and sexuality, which allowed us to hypothesise that these young women represent new subjects in the school scene. We conclude the article with some general comments regarding the significance and importance of engaging students and teachers in reflective and denaturalising processes.
- Subjects
FEMININITY; SEX customs; SECONDARY schools; PUBLIC schools; CLASSROOMS
- Publication
At the Interface / Probing the Boundaries, 2018, Vol 94, p167
- ISSN
1570-7113
- Publication type
Article