Against the Wall: Humor and Censorship in Children's Literature

The relationship between children's literature and the classroom is neither recent nor little discussed, and the so-called "literary-didactic split" (Nikolajeva xi), a fundamental aspect of the genre, offers up to this day innumerable heated debates in the field of criticism. In Brazil, this close association between school and children's literature is also of great importance to understand its appearance, development, maturing, and survival. Government policies of investment in education, programs to promote reading, and voluminous purchases of books for mass distribution have always dictated, and continue to dictate, the production of children's books in Brazil. And this relationship has generated, as a consequence, the high number of works for children to meet the demand of schools that assign to literature the role of forming active subjects and good citizens.

As stated by Regina Zilberman and Marisa Lajolo:

The appearance of literature among us occurred … under the sponsorship of a project only compatible with modern societies, in which are present secure circulation channels, between a public that is more vast, sensitive and permeable to ideological inculcation that is inserted into an apparently aesthetic project. And, if this is true for most of these first manifestations, we will see … how this old impasse remains present in all Brazilian works for children, even though their forms of expression may vary over the years: children's literature appears to be condemned to be quite permeable to the injunctions that are expected of it by school and society, and to not show much sensibility to the achievements of non-children's literature, which represent the avant-garde as well as the mirror in which children's books don't always recognize themselves.

(44)¹

This instructional disposition is fundamental to the understanding of Brazilian children's literature. It has had, throughout its history, moments of greater or lesser force. Monteiro Lobato, for example, or the generation of authors in the 70s and 80s, such as Lygia Bojunga and Ana Maria Machado, were some of the writers capable, in individual works, of distancing themselves from school didacticism. But it was in the passage from the twentieth to the twenty-first century that children's books started to gain greater distance from school walls. We can currently witness the maturing of the children's book as graphic and literary object, revealed in well-defined aesthetic tendencies, in daring and consistent proposals, and in the recognition of Brazilian authors and illustrators all over the world. The number and the quality of the works that are published today give the impression that children's literature in Brazil might (at least part of it) not just be a means to virtuous behavior, but an end in itself.

However, in this period of great richness we may also observe the transformation of children's books into the targets of grave criticism by different groups of society, due to the supposed inadequacy with which certain themes aimed at certain audiences are treated. Over the last years, in Brazil, with the resurgence of political disputes between the Left and the Right and the increase of extremist attitudes, children's books have entered the spotlight as great disseminators of ideologies. This curious phenomenon has resulted in various works and authors becoming the target of the most varied accusations: racism, the encouragement of pedophilia, incest, being "the devil's thing," are just some examples of accusations spread through social media, newspapers, and TV programs. It also has contributed to the creation of a paradoxical and perhaps unprecedented situation in the field of children's books in Brazil. Just as one may observe an increased appreciation for the book as an artistic object, these criticisms recast children's literature into its old position as a mere vehicle for the transfer of ideas. The coexistence of both perspectives has set up a scenario of dispute and conflict in the world of Brazilian children's literature today.

We will take a closer look at this phenomenon by considering two specific cases: the objections made against the book Le guide du Zizi sexuel (Willies: A User's Guide), by Zep and Hélène Bruller, published in Brazil in 2007, and Peppa, written and illustrated by Silvana Rando, published in 2009.² Despite their many differences—Peppa is a fictional narrative and Le guide is an informative book—both use the humor as their main discursive strategy. We will seek to analyze how Brazilian critical discourses understand and interpret the humor that are present in the written text and in the images of both books, and reflect on the limits of this kind of approach at children's literature nowadays.

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The French nonfiction book Le guide du Zizi sexuel (Willies: A User's Guide)—which was published in fifteen countries, was the theme of an exhibition in Paris and sold more than 1.5 million copies—was criticized by Jair Bolsonaro in 2016. At the time, the politician, still a federal congressman, stated in a video posted on his social networks that the work was "an open invitation to pedophilia." During his presidential campaign in 2018, the then-candidate criticized the book on national TV during an interview to Jornal Nacional, the most-watched news program in Brazil. With a copy in his hands turned to the camera, Jair Bolsonaro suggested that the book had been distributed by former president Dilma Rousseff's government to Brazilian schools as part of a Rousseff project "School without Homophobia." This project had sparked much controversy in her first term and was dubbed "gay kit" by conservatives. It involved the distribution of a support kit for teacher training on issues such as LGBQTIA+ rights, and the fight against violence and prejudice in the school environment. However, pressure from the government opposition eventually led Rousseff to veto the proposal, so that the awareness-raising project was never actually launched. Furthermore, the book in question was never part of this project, nor was it ever acquired by the Ministry of Education and distributed to schools. Right after his interview, Jair Bolsonaro posted a text on his Instagram account suggesting that his followers watch his 2016 video if they wanted more information about the material that was part of the "gay kit." In the video, he claims that Le guide du Zizi sexuel (Willies: A User's Guide), besides being an "open invitation to pedophilia," "is a collection of absurdities that precociously stimulates children to take [an] interest in sex."

Le guide du Zizi sexuel is a nonfiction introduction to sexuality that follows the model of a question-and-answer manual. It is divided into the following chapters: "Falling in love," "Puberty," "Having sex," "Conceiving a child," "Protecting yourself," "Stay smart." Using colloquial language, the book seeks to provide a preteen readership (the age group recommended by the Brazilian publisher of the book, Companhia das Letras, is ages eleven to fourteen) with basic sexual education, tracing a journey from the first kiss and first sexual relationship to reproduction and pregnancy. The last two chapters present a rather different content: they focus on alerting the reader to the importance of taking responsibility for one's own health and to the necessity of both physical and emotional protection. They also address issues such as hygiene, the use of condoms, pedophilia, and consent, among others. In Brazil, sexual education is envisaged as a fundamental subject to be addressed at school, as it is a key item in the federal government's National Curriculum Parameters (PCN). These parameters apply to private as well as public schools, and their objective is to guarantee that students have access to the necessary knowledge to exercise their citizenship. Although they are not obligatory, the PCNs serve as guiding principles for teachers, coordinators, and directors. The PCN on sexual education states:

When dealing with the issue of Sexual Orientation, we seek to look at sexuality as something that is inherent to life and health, which expresses itself in human beings, from birth to death. It is related to the right to pleasure and to the responsible exercise of one's sexuality. It includes gender relationships, respect for one's self, for the other, and for the diversity of beliefs, values and cultural expressions that exist in a democratic and diverse society. It includes the importance of preventing sexually transmissible diseases/AIDS and unwanted pregnancy in adolescence, among other controversial issues. It intends to contribute to overcoming taboos and prejudices that are still ingrained in the Brazilian sociocultural context.³

Although from its time of publication to the present moment Le guide du Zizi sexuel (Willies: A User's Guide) has only been adopted for classroom use by a single school, and has never been purchased by the state government, it adheres to the guidelines established in the PCN: it contains material with scientific backing, it treats sexuality as natural through a careful use of language, and it points out the problems and dangers of irresponsible sexual practices. With the aim of overcoming the taboo that surrounds much of the content and of bringing it closer to the target audience, the book uses humor as the main discursive strategy in the text as well as in the illustrations. Each page adopts the dynamic design principles of contemporary information books by using script-like headings, providing a question-and-answer format, and including marginal commentary through cartoon characters and speech bubbles. We see the same unpretentious tone present all through the text, and the humor, here, comes from bringing together two universes: that of sex, and that of children, represented by illustrations that imitate and parody children's drawings.

Besides the humor, which attempts to get closer to the preteen world, we can note the emphasis on self-knowledge. The book repeatedly urges readers to find healthy ways of having relationships, always underscoring the idea of respect for one's own and other people's limits. All through the book, there are warnings such as "no one is obliged to have sex."

This nonfictional work employs Titeuf, a popular cartoon character who experiences the situations cited in the text, to illustrate its points. The character, who seems to be a preteen boy, appears in embarrassing and uncomfortable situations, showing his complete ignorance about sexual issues, since, like the implied reader, he is encountering sexual education for the first time. Titeuf's humorous predicaments make it easier for the reader to identify with him immediately. This blending of nonfictional and fictional elements is common in children's informational books. Hans-Heino Ewers, in Fundamental Concepts of Children's Literature Research discusses the idea of "children's literary communication," a wide concept in which children's literature is defined from the perspective of a theory of communication—that every children's book sends a message from an adult to an implied audience of children or young adults. Ewers includes nonfiction books in his discussion, stating that the "literary is not confined to fiction, but also always includes factual and informational literary communication. With this broad conception of the term 'literary' we are continuing a tradition that has long predominated in this field: experts in children's and young people's literature have from the beginning always regarded non-fiction as falling within their purview" (Ewers 9). In this way, Le guide du Zizi sexuel (Willies: A User's Guide), as an object of literary communication, defines its readers not only in terms of the publisher's criteria, but also by the very language and presence of the fictional cartoon character Titeuf, which allows for greater engagement of the addressee with the content discussed.

Le guide du Zizi sexuel (Willies: A User's Guide) has been the target of ferocious criticism by conservative sectors of society and by the president of Brazil himself, yet it is also vulnerable to criticism from feminist and other Left groups because of its patriarchal orientation. This is something that has not occurred to this day, at least in Brazil. Titeuf's structural importance makes the masculine point of view the dominant one, something we see not only because the main character is a boy but also because of how various topics are addressed. In the passage in which ways of flirting are presented, for example, one may note certain stereotypes associated with men and women, all originating from a patriarchal society, in which the position of submission to the opposite sex is all that is left to women. Still, the progressive perspective, concerned with providing information that is scientifically correct and adequate for the book's readership, should be noted, in Brazil's children's book market where practically nothing can be found on the subject for this age group. And in the face of this stance, it is predictable that, in a scenario of growing conservatism coinciding with an increase in the political power of religious groups in Brazil, phrases such as "there is no right age to engage in sex" may cause discomfort or even provoke revolt, as turned out to be the case.

Le guide du Zizi sexuel (Willies: A User's Guide), thus, not only takes on a taboo subject in a direct, objective, and also humorous way, a combination of strategies causing even more revulsion in conservative groups and in the nation's president. In the view of conservative critics, the book's outspoken way of addressing sexual initiation, already present in the very subtitle of the book ("an unusual guide for cool kids"), is not understood as a narrative strategy but rather as criminal disrespect in the face of serious issue. Ironically, before being shown on the most-watched news program in the country, the book had only sold four thousand copies in eleven years, revealing the general lack of acceptance of the book by the Brazilian public. However, after all the controversy, it was reprinted and ended up selling more than four thousand copies in just a year—and it was one of the most accessed posts on the publisher's social networks. This shows both the ruckus that the subject of youth sexual education is capable of generating, and how a censorship controversy often makes more people want to purchase and read the book in question. But, considering Jair Bolsonaro and his followers' approach to the topic, it is possible also to observe the inability of part of the adult public to deal with taboo subjects being discussed with young people, as well as their lack of familiarity with the world of humor with its rich and varied literary devices.

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The second book examined in this article, unlike Le guide du Zizi sexuel (Willies: A User's Guide), is fictional—but, like the other book, it uses humor as its main narrative tool. Peppa is a picture book written and illustrated by the white Brazilian writer Silvana Rando, published in 2009 by the publishing company Brinque-Book. Since its launch it has sold close to thirty thousand copies. It tells the story of Peppa, who takes pride in her strong, curly hair, which is powerful and full of personality. However, one day she sees a hair straightening ad on the street, and she then starts to feel bothered by her appearance and decides to go straighten her hair at the hairdresser's. Peppa comes out of the hair salon feeling very happy with the results, but then life becomes tedious because of the long list of things she can't do in order to maintain her straight hair. Finally, on a very hot day, she dives into a pool, goes back to her natural hair, and ends up very pleased with her choice.

In 2017, the digital influencer and black activist Ana Paula Xongani posted a video on her YouTube channel that criticized Silvana Rando's book, arguing that Peppa's hair had been described in a racist way. She claims that the book brings back old—and aggressive—stereotypes and that it is necessary to pay attention to the ways in which, quite often, racism occurs almost invisibly or in small details. The video went viral and Silvana started being criticized, hearing insults and being approached in the street and even, according to her, being threatened. After a few weeks of polemics on social networks, the author together with the publisher decided to withdraw the book from circulation.

Already in the first paragraph of the story, we read that Peppa's hair was "resistant like steel wires" and the illustrations show what the character is capable of doing with them: flying a kite; pulling a shopping cart; and being the cable of a tug-of-war competition. These are precisely the scenes that Xongani found most offensive.

According to Xongani, the image of "steel wires" seems to reinforce the idea that frizzy hair is "stiff" and "rough," in opposition to the softness of other types of hair, and these are historical stereotypes that are being strongly challenged by different activist groups, celebrities, and researchers dedicated to the issue of structural racism in Brazil. But it is also in this first contact with the character that we may observe that she is characterized as "beautiful and with big hair," which suggests that this trait of Peppa's is valued by the narrator. Besides, Peppa always appears in the illustrations smiling, and even on the pages where she is seen fighting it out with her hair, by using it to push a shopping cart, to fly a kite and to carry a fridge, she still expresses satisfaction, determination, and even joy. These images seem to establish a dialogue with the universe of the impossible, fantastic, and over-the-top things characteristic of children's literature—at the same time it strengthens preconceived and aggressive notions to the character's hair, an element that carries great importance in the constitution of women's identity and representation.

Despite this legitimate reading that the way her hair is described is offensive, it can be observed that the playful illustrations try to create a light atmosphere around this issue. It is worth stating, in this sense, that the humorous, upbeat tone that permeates the work is mainly an effect of the images, whose style also recalls the world of cartoons. If we look at the two characters, Peppa and Titeuf, side by side, both are drawn with simple and defined strokes; their limbs are not depicted with the proportions of a realistic drawing; parts of the face such as the eyes and the nose appear in an exaggerated way. However, Titeuf dialogues most with a male and white implied reader, and brings issues common to most adolescents, whereas Peppa is a white female, but with an issue facing girls of color more continuously than any other group. In this sense, it is important to consider that while Le guide is creating humor from a character that represents the most empowered group of society—white and heterosexual males—, Peppa is dealing with an identity issue of historically disempowered groups, for whom humor have been a manner of insulting and demeaning.

The first third of the book, through illustrations and a simple and concise verbal language, the reader is introduced to the friendly Peppa and her eyecatching hair. The conflict starts with the appearance of her mother, who "cut a strand of hair to close her cookie package," something the girl hates. When the mother appropriates something integral to Peppa's identity for her own use and without her consent, this bothers the girl. This scene constitutes the first moment when Peppa's easygoing attitude to her hair is challenged by someone else's vision, and it serves as an introduction to what follows.

Peppa decides to change her appearance, inspired by a poster of an adult woman with blond, straight hair. The scene synthesizes Peppa's encounter with alterity, which triggers another conflict. From this point, Peppa starts comparing herself with others and feels so badly about her hair that she decides to straighten it. It is the judgment that comes from outside, therefore, that makes her decide to go to the hairdresser.

After straightening her hair, however, life quickly becomes boring for Peppa: she can't jump anymore, go swimming, ride a horse, laugh too much, get wet in the rain … and so Peppa soon gives up on the hair treatment, in the third and last part of the story. On the last page of the book, she appears newly pleased with her "original version."

The narrative is constructed in such a way that the message of empowerment does not upstage the stylistic aspects, and the end of the story, far from conveying a literal message, is simple and abrupt, fitting the tone of the rest of the book. The key to the meaning is in the final illustration: Peppa is portrayed as happy and poses for the reader in a parody of a professional photo shoot—she seems to feel as pretty as the women who fit the standard of beauty imposed by society. Peppa, thus, seems to go through a process of acceptance of her hair—and yet several bruising images, especially at the beginning of the story, have been seen as reinforcing negative racial stereotypes and myths surrounding hair.

Like many other books in Brazil at the moment, Peppa discusses the issue of identity and puts hair at the center of a process of acceptance and empowerment of women, as is the case with Happy to Be Nappy (published in Brazil as Meu crespo é de rainha [2018]), by the American feminist intellectual bell hooks, and O mundo no black power de Tayó (The World Inside Tayó's Black Power, 2013) by Kiusam de Oliveira with drawings by Taisa Borges. However, unlike these examples, Peppa's use of humor in its images and exaggerated situations end up creating, for a group of readers, the contrary effect: instead of praising the natural beauty of frizzy hair, it makes a joke out of it.⁴

Thus, the exaggeration so typical of children's literature and the intention to cause laughter provokes indignation instead, because of the perceived reinforcement of racist stereotypes. But Ana Paula Xongani's critique focuses less on the pictures and more on the text, for example, her interpretation about the end of the story, which ignores Peppa's happiness on the last page and concludes that the character is going back to her former status, when she could play but couldn't be happy with her hair. If one reads text and image together, it's possible to capture the ironic tone of the narrator and the "happy ending" in which the character doesn't care anymore for the pre-established beauty standards. But even considering that illustrations in a picture book play an essential role to the narrative, it is also important to discuss the verbal construction of the last page of the book: "And there was gone her straight and silky hair." Perceiving or not the message created by the illustration, it builds an opposition in which straight hair is considered "silky" or "smooth," and frizzy hair is, conversely, "resistant like steel wires"—and this antagonism is developed along the whole story. Therefore, as already said, although it is possible to take in Peppa's acceptance of her hair (and herself) in the story, the central contrast in the narrative between the positive characteristics of straight hair and the negative aspects of frizzy hair has proved to be highly problematic.

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In the cases that have been studied here, both conservative groups and progressive ones have put a children's book at the center of political disputes. On the one hand, for the Brazilian president and its followers, sexual education should not be discussed with children and even less so treated with playfulness. On the other hand, the humor in Peppa is based on the reinforcement of some images and contrasts associated with racist stereotypes. In Zizi, humor is meant to bring the reader in, it centers the perspective and experience of young white males, bases it on a popular comic strip character, and it offers support and good advice to kids. Peppa uses humor to exaggerate the qualities of kinky hair without showing any awareness of the kids most likely to be affected by the jokes. It doesn't center the perspective and experience of Black girls (and doesn't seem to be aware of them), and so Black girls, for whom hair can be a uniquely painful and embarrassing issue, are made unintended victims by the book. By contrast, in Zizi, the awkwardness of adolescent sexuality is treated in a normative and normalizing way.

Therefore, on the conservative side, the critics want to protect children from knowledge of their bodies and are offended by a humorous approach to something they want children to be afraid of or ignorant of; on the progressive side, the critics intend to protect girls from being further stigmatized by something that is already a source of conflict for them. One wishes to limit knowledge; the other wants to limit mockery of a vulnerable population.

Despite these evident different perspectives and intentions, it is also possible to learn from bringing the two situations together that humor, a resource that requires distancing from the reader—and is commonly used in children's literature to soften subjects considered "too difficult" or "tough" for its public—is the great villain. And we might be witnessing structural changes in the way we understand humor—and also literature.