jumper worn over his shoulders or around his waist. Scott has limited social contact with
other boys in the year group but has close friendships with range of girls, including a
number of high-status, popular girls. These friendships are tactile, affectionate and
include much verbal mutual admiration - citing and inscribing the gay man and straight
woman (injuriously ‘fag-hag’) relationship of popular and gay discourse. Scott’s school
diary is covered in the iconography of gay culture: rainbow, red ribbon, and World Aids
Day stickers, alongside monochrome photographs of demure young men and dramatic
landscapes.
Ian, Western Sydney
Ian is 15 years old, White, and from a working class background. Ian’s teachers identify
him as being of high ‘ability’ relative to his classmates. He is tall relative to many of the
boys in the year group and has neither the archetypal ‘hard body’ of the Australian man
nor the ‘soft body’ of the ‘working class sissy-boy’ (McInnes & Couch 2001). Ian
conforms to school uniform regulations to a greater degree than many of his peers. While
like many of boys he wears a regulation white sports shirt, he also wears grey heavy
cotton long shorts that are only rarely worn by other bys in the year group. A similar
incongruity is evident in Ian’s footwear - his big brand trainers are the same make as
those of other boys, but the particular style of hi-tech stretch fabric running shoes is not
worn by other boys. Ian does not appear to have an integral place in any of the student
sub-cultures in the school. He has a close friendship with Josh and also spends time on
the periphery of groups of popular, unruly ‘anti-school’ boys.
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