Injury, suicide and neoconservatism

Problematizations of LGBTQIPA+ students' school narratives

Abstract

The aim of this article is to problematize the ways in which neoconservatism, by authorizing contexts of injuries in schools, can corroborate the production of suffering processes and suicidal narratives in LGBTQIPA+ students. To this end, we engage with statements from two university students with non-normative expressions of sexuality and gender, interviewed about the relationship between their schooling experiences and suicide. For the problematizations, we draw on post-structuralist theories from the field of education and sociocultural studies on self-extermination. Initially, we question how neoconservatism, in alliances with neoliberalism, penetrates school cultures and configures a hostile terrain conducive to injuries directed at LGBTQIPA+ students. These injuries appear as a technology capable of (de)forming the subjectivities of these students and ultimately enable the constitution of suicidal processes. Finally, the statements allowed a brief reflection on the potential of public schooling to promote agreements between different subjects and groups and, thus, to constitute a safe space for LGBTQIPA+ students.