Anti-gender pedagogization in the "Movimento Escola sem Partido" and its neoliberal crossings
The present research investigates the disputes around the gender category in the field of education, mobilized by the fight against “gender ideology”, in the “Movimento Escola Sem Partido'' (MESP). The movement presents itself as a reaction to the action agendas of the Lula (PT/2003-2010) and Dilma (PT/ 2011 until impeachment in 2016) governments, especially against the strengthening and expansion of feminist and LGBTQIA+ rights. The MESP has gained strength and capillarity from the bonds of bills at the municipal, state and federal sphere, culminating in outcomes such as the removal of the term “gender” from official documents such as the BNCC. The MESP's claims are part of a neoconservative agenda that even served as a powerful element in the campaign promises of the then extreme right-wing candidate, Jair Bolsonaro (No Party), elected in 2018. This research investigates to what extent the speeches of combat to “gender ideology” in the “Movimento Escola Sem Partido'' had contributed to the configuration of a neoconservative power project in the Brazilian context, based on a multi-sited ethnography (MARCUS, 1995). In order to do so, it analyzes several pieces that cover the discourses of combating “gender ideology” disseminated by MESP, namely: six public hearings for the voting and debate of bills linked to the “Movimento Escola Sem Partido'' in the counties of Taubaté - SP (PL 103/2017), Sorocaba-SP (PL 22/2017) and Santo André-SP (PL 299/2017), the insertion in the research field and the empirical materials recorded in a field diary, propositions linked to the MESP at the municipal, state and federal levels, as well as the demands and the content presented in the two main lines of action of the MESP (the Programa Escola Sem Partido and the escolasempartido.com)