pupils sexual and gender identities

• Ways in which pupils experiences in school help to construct and reinforce their gender and sexual identities:

  1)double standards

  2)verbal abuse

  3)the male gaze

  4)male peer groups

  5)female peer groups policing identity

  6)teachers and discipline
• 1)double standards-Lees

  identifies a double standard of sexual morality in which boys boast about their own sexual exploits but call a girl a ‘slag’ if she doesn’t have a steady boyfriend or if she dresses and speaks in a certain way

  sexual conquest is approved of and given status by male peers and ignored by male teachers but in girls cases it attracts negative labels

  Feminists see these double standards as a form of social control that reinforces gender inequality by keeping females subordinate to males.
• 2) verbal abuse- Parker

  found that boys were labelled gay simply for being friendly with girl or female teachers and even though these labels often have no relation to pupils actual sexual behaviour those function is simply to reinforce gender norms and identities
• 3)the male gaze-Mac and Ghaill

  there’s also a visual aspect to the way pupils control each others identities they refer to this as the ‘male gaze’ the way male pupils and teachers look girls up and down seeing them as sexual objects and making judgements about their appearance

  this acts as a form of surveillance through which dominant heterosexual masculinity is reinforced and femininity devalued and one of the ways through which boys prove their masculinity to their friends and those that don’t display their heterosexuality this way are at risk of being labelled gay
• 4) male peer groups

  male peer groups also use verbal abuse to reinforce their definitions of masculinity (eg. As study by Willis shows that boys in anti school subcultures often accuse boys who want to do well at school of being gay)
• 5) female peer groups policing identity: (1)

  Ringrose‘s study of 13-14 year old working class girls peer groups found that being popular was crucial to the girls identity as the girls made a transition from a girls ‘friendship culture‘ into a ‘heterosexual dating culture’

  They faced tension between:

  -an idealised feminine identity= of showing loyalty to the female peer group and being non competitive and getting along with everyone in the friendship culture

  -a sexualised identity= that involved competing for boys in the dating culture
• 5)female peer groups policing identity: (2)

  Currie argues that relationships with boys can confer symbolic capital but its high risk as girls are forced to perform a balancing act between two identities:

  -girls that are too competitive or think of themselves as better than their peers risk ‘slut shaming’ and being excluded from their friendship group

  -however girls that don’t compete for boyfriends may face ‘frigid shaming‘ by other girls

  shaming is a social control device by which school girls police each other’s identities
• 6) teachers and discipline

  Research shows teachers also play a part in reinforcing dominant definitions of gender identity

  Mac and Ghaill found that male teachers told boys off for ‘behaving like girls’ and teased them when they gained lower marks than girls in exams

  teachers also tended to ignore boys verbal abuse of girls and even blamed girls for attracting it.