Gender Identities in Class: the use of movies on combat against homophobia in schools of Brasília – Federal District of Brazil

Abstract

Traditionally, the cinema is a broadcasting place of negative images of homosexuality, as it reinforces stereotypes and prejudices about sexual and gender identities non-heteronormative. Yet, for its global reach, the movies can be used as a privileged way in the confrontation of homophobia and in debates about homosexuality at school. This paper analyses a pedagogical intervention in a public elementary school of Federal District of Brazil from the exhibition of the short-film “I don’t want to go back alone”, directed by Daniel Ribeiro (2010). In this work, our goal is understand in three stages the imaginary and social practices that instruct the student’s social representation of gender relations and homosexuality: the first is a chat session with the students, than a collective reading of texts about sexuality and gender relations, and then the use of the chosen movie. During this investigation, it was possible to identify proper teaching knowledge to the treatment of this subject under the suggested activities with the usage of the film and the gender and homosexuality conception, sometimes conservative, sometimes transgressive, branding the students discourses.