Dude, You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School"Laced with evocative stories based on ethnographic observations and interviews with high school kids, Dude, You're a Fag tells gripping stories of life in high school, while helping to extend the cutting edge of scholarly theory on gender and sexualities. C.J. Pascoe has contributed a highly readable and extremely insightful book that will be required reading for students and scholars of youth and the construction of sex and gender in schools."—Michael A. Messner, author of Taking the Field: Women, Men and Sports "This is a strikingly original study of schoolboys renegotiating class, gender, and ethnicity, along with the labeling as 'fag'. Here homophobia is at work in a path breaking study, which is also a highly readable must-read."—Ken Plummer, University of Essex, and editor of Sexualities "We know that schools are a central site for the construction of gender identity, but until C. J. Pascoe's careful and compassionate ethnography, we haven't known exactly how gender conformity is extracted from a slurry of humiliations, fears, and anxieties. Boys will not be boys unless they are made to be, by violence, real or implied. A troubling, thoughtful work."—Michael Kimmel, author of Manhood in America "Pascoe's thoughtful analysis of the rhetorical and interactional processes that constitute the field of masculinity for young, high school men coming of age is rich and engaging. With fresh insight and careful observation, Pascoe sheds new light on the complex interplay of masculinity, homophobia, sexuality, and the body, compelling us to rethink the formation of gender identities, collective gender practices, and the reproduction of gender inequalities."—Amy L. Best, author of Prom Night: Youth, Schools and Popular Culture and Fast Cars, Cool Rides: The Accelerating World of Youth and Their Cars "In this superb ethnography of daily life in a contemporary high school, C. J. Pascoe highlights the sexualized dynamics of youthful masculinity. With vivid detail and perceptive analysis, she examines the 'fag talk' which pervades boys' conversations; the convergence of gender, sexual, and racialized practices in school rituals like the 'Mr. Cougar' contest; and the experiences of girls who display themselves as masculine. The result is a book that breaks fresh ground in masculinity and gender studies-and is a very good read!"—Barrie Thorne, author of Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School |
Contents
Adolescence Identity and High School | 1 |
Institutionalizing Heterosexualityand Masculinity at River High | 25 |
Adolescent Male Homophobia | 52 |
Masculinityand Dominance | 84 |
5 Look at My Masculinity Girls Who Act Like Boys | 115 |
Thinking about Schooling Genderand Sexuality | 156 |
What If a Guy Hits on You? Intersections of GenderSexuality and Age in Fieldwork with Adolescents | 175 |
Notes | 195 |
| 201 | |
| 215 | |
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Common terms and phrases
administrators adolescent masculinity African American boys asked auto baggy Basketball Girls behavior boys at River Cathy Chad challenge Chris Rock classroom clothing compulsive heterosexuality condoms Cougar culinity cultural dance Darnell dominance dress engaged fag discourse faggot female feminist feminized football friends gender and sexual gender identities gender order gender practices Genevieve getting girls girlfriend girls at River GSA Girls guys harassment heteronormative heterosexuality high school hip-hop homecoming homophobia homophobic hypersexual inequality insult interac interviews Jessie joking Josh Lacy laughed lesbian looked male bodies masculine identities masculinity and femininity masculinity processes nerds non-normative gender normative pants play queer theory racialized Rebeca repudiation responded Ricky River High Riverton saying school rituals sexist sexual identities sexual norms shirts skit social sort students at River switch hitter talk teachers teased teenage teens told tomboy walked wear weight room white boys Winter Ball women Yeah yelled