Needing to be ‘in the know’: strategies of subordination used by 10-11 year old school boys

as another factor which helped to construct him as ‘other’. One of the main tactics the
boys use is by feminising Timothy and they use the word ‘girl’ six times during the
transcript. In other words, they are saying that he, and the femininity associated with
him, is diametrically opposed to them: he (and it) are defined by what they are not.
Epstein (1998b:103) writes that, ‘the worst thing a boy can be called is a “girl”, even
worse than being called “gay boy”, “poof” or “sissy” ’, but although this was confirmed
by a few boys at each school, the majority told me that it was actually swear words or (at
Petersfield) a really bad cuss concerning their mother that really upset them.

Petersfield

Rather unusually, and unlike in the classes at my other two schools, there were only two
friendship groups of boys in class 6H (see, for example, Pollard 1985, Thorne 1993,
Adler and Adler 1998, Connolly 1998, Renold 1999). Out of the 18 boys, there was one
large, dominant group of 13 boys, and 5 others who were victimised and subordinated.
The dominant group at Petersfield also categorised and defined the other smaller group of
boys by their ‘differences’. They were regarded, and pathologised, as non modern and
deficient in knowledge of up-to-date things (such as TV, computer programs, football
news and results etc); as lacking in ‘coolness’ by not wearing the latest fashions and
trends; as not being sufficiently loyal to friends by not sticking up for their mates; and
scant in athleticism or sportyness. They were also perceived to be wanting in a certain
Year 6 sophistication by being more immature and ‘babyish’, and their counter school
behaviour was deemed to be ‘naughty’ and ‘silly’.

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