DISCOURSE, STATE, AND SEXUALITY: THE DICTATORSHIP AND ITS TRACES

Abstract

In this article, we discuss how the remnants of the Brazilian Military Dictatorship continue to produce effects, especially in educational policies and discourses on sexuality. Starting from the late establishment of the Comissão Nacional da Verdade [National Truth Commission] and the lack of accountability for the regime’s crimes, the enduring strength of authoritarianism is reproduced. The article examines Jair Bolsonaro’s speech during the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, in which he invoked “the innocence of children” as a moral justification, and its repercussions in anti-democratic policies such as the Escola Sem Partido [No-Party School]. The analysis of Bolsonaro’s live broadcast with a child reveals how discursive ambiguities expose minors to symbolic sexualization. Drawing on theorists such as Pêcheux, Orlandi, and Althusser, the text denounces how the school is instrumentalized by the dominant ideology to reproduce power.

Keywords:
Far-right discourse; School; Sexuality; State