Anthropology
Order Description
Read the attached reading and write 3 PCQs, which stands for Pros, Cons, and Questions in any combination (you can write 3 questions, or 2 questions plus 1 Pro etc..) This is professor’s requirement: Although brief, PCQs should demonstrate critical thinking about the topic through providing examples, application, and connections
Abstract This article argues that American adolescent boys
become masculine through the continual repudiation of a ‘fag’
identity. Using insights from sociologists of interaction and
post-structural theorists of sexuality this article demonstrates that
the fag insult has multiple meanings which are primarily
gendered but also sexualized and raced. This article builds on
prior analyses of adolescent homophobia by (1) pointing to the
limits of an argument that focuses centrally on homophobia,
(2) demonstrating that the fag is not only an identity linked to
homosexual boys but an identity that can temporarily adhere
to heterosexual boys as well and (3) highlighting the racialized
nature of this fag discourse.
Keywords adolescence, gender, homophobia, masculinity, sexuality
C. J. Pascoe
University of California, USA
‘Dude, You’re a Fag’: Adolescent
Masculinity and the Fag Discourse
‘There’s a faggot over there! There’s a faggot over there! Come look!’ yelled
Brian, a senior at River High School, to a group of 10-year-old boys. Following
Brian, the 10 year olds dashed down a hallway. At the end of the hallway
Brian’s friend, Dan, pursed his lips and began sashaying towards the 10-yearolds.
He minced towards them, swinging his hips exaggeratedly and wildly
waving his arms. To the boys Brian yelled, ‘Look at the faggot! Watch out! He’ll
get you!’ In response the 10-year-olds raced back down the hallway screaming
in terror. (From author’s fieldnotes)
The relationship between adolescent masculinity and sexuality is
embedded in the specter of the faggot. Faggots represent a penetrated
masculinity in which ‘to be penetrated is to abdicate power’ (Bersani,
1987: 212). Penetrated men symbolize a masculinity devoid of power,
which, in its contradiction, threatens both psychic and social chaos. It is
precisely this specter of penetrated masculinity that functions as a regulatory
mechanism of gender for contemporary American adolescent boys.
Article
Sexualities Copyright © 2005 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi)
Vol 8(3): 329–346 DOI: 10.1177/1363460705053337
www.sagepublications.com
© 2005 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution.
Downloaded from http://sexualities.sagepub.com at UNIV CALIFORNIA IRVINE on November 25, 2007
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