Anthropology

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 PLACE THIS ORDER OR A SIMILAR ORDER WITH US TODAY AND GET AN AMAZING DISCOUNT :)