MEC buys sexually explicit book for schools; decision is from 2022

The Ministry of Education is delivering a book with sexually explicit excerpts to public schools.

“O Avesso da Pele”, by Jeferson Tenório, was included by the department in the PNLD, the National Book and Teaching Material Program. Through it, the MEC acquires literary works to distribute to schools that request them.

The work became part of the PNLD in September 2022, still during the Bolsonaro government. The ordinance that approved “O Avesso da Pele” and 530 other books was signed by Gilson Passos de Oliveira, from the Basic Education Secretariat of the Ministry of Education. Tenório’s book appears in the “High School” category.

The matter only came to light now, after the director of a school in Santa Cruz do Sul (RS), Janaina Venzon, denounced the book’s content on her Instagram page. She displayed two passages from the book that have explicit language and sexual content, and stated that the MEC sent 200 copies of the work to the school where she works.

One of the excerpts shown by the teacher makes explicit reference to the size of male genitalia.

Another passage refers to the male sexual organ using the term pimps, and also uses a vulgar expression for female genitalia. The excerpt describes a sexual relationship: “Come, my white girl. Come, my black guy. Suck your white girl. Suck your little guy. I love your white skin. I love your skin, my guy. I love your white girl. I love your p… black”.

Explicit excerpts and swear words

A People’s Gazette confirmed that the excerpts shown by Janaina Venzon are indeed part of the book included in the PNLD, and also found other passages with adult content.

Jeferson Tenório’s book has more than fifty excerpts with swear words or terms that are usually considered inappropriate for teenagers. The book also includes several references to sexual relationships between the protagonist and his parents. The terms were censored in this report, but they appear in full letters in the work acquired by MEC.

An excerpt from the book lists gratuitous rudeness: “Picking up a can of beer, he took a good look at my mother and asked where she had learned that. Learned what? she wanted to know. Learned to climb like a bitch, he said. Because I’ve never seen a virgin girl moan like that in bed, move like that, where did you learn that, you slut?”

Another passage describes a forced sexual relationship between teenagers: “You remember the first time you kissed her and you felt like vomiting every time you felt her tongue entering your mouth. You didn’t understand why a kiss had to be like that. Afterwards She told you to pull down your shorts because she wanted to kiss your p… and you said you didn’t want to, and cousin Violeta threatened you saying she could make up a series of things about you.”

The work also has direct references to drug use. “Some went swimming in the river, others in the waterfall, and there were still those who sought fun with a joint or cocaine”, states one of the passages.

“O Avesso da Pele” has as its backdrop discrimination against black people. Publisher Companhia das Letras describes the book as “a novel about identity and complex racial relations, about violence and blackness”. At the end of the story, the protagonist’s father is unjustly executed by the police.

The work won the “Literary Romance” category of the Jabuti Prize in 2021

MEC exempts itself from blame

The Ministry of Education released a statement on the case this Saturday. At the same time that it attributed the choice of the work to the previous government, the ministry stated that the content of the books included in the PNLD, including “O Avesso da Pele”, is previously evaluated by experts. “The acquisition of works takes place through a public call, in an equal and transparent manner. These works are evaluated by professors, masters and doctors, who have registered with the MEC’s ​​bank of evaluators”, stated the ministry.

The text also states that “the approved books become part of a catalog in which schools can choose, in a democratic way, the materials that best suit their pedagogical reality”.

The Ministry of Education says that the MEC only delivers the works to schools that make a formal request.

However, principal Janaina Venzon stated that she did not request the book for the school where she is principal. “If it is proven that the pedagogical coordination did not make the request on the recommendation of a teacher, we will be taking the case to the Public Ministry”, she wrote this Saturday, on her Instagram page.