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



and to show how dominant types of masculinity classify and position these boys at the
bottom of the pupil hierarchy. I highlight the role of the body in subordination, and
propose that the strategies of subordination can be summarised under the generic heading
of ‘difference’ For many boys in this subordinated position, their daily experience of
school is often highly uncomfortable and distressing, and they often suffer from verbal
and physical bullying. This situation can also have adverse effects on academic
performance, and is of course by no means limited to schools in the UK. It is therefore
important for inclusive educators to understand how and why some of the main tactics of
subordination are used in order to try and counter them and, indeed, change them.

Theories of masculinity; subordination; and the importance of peer group status
The ongoing construction of boys’ nascent identities at school is essentially an issue
about masculinities which are actively produced using the strategies and resources which
are available in each particular setting (Connell 2000). Many recent theoretical
conceptualisations about masculinity have been coherently summarised by Gilbert and
Gilbert (1998) and, along with Connell (1987, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2002), they highlight
the inadequacies of sex-roles/socialisation theories, and affirm a number of key points
from recent feminist and feminist-inspired work: masculinity is a relational construct
occupying a place in gender relations; there are multiple masculinities; there are
hierarchies of masculinities; masculinity is a precarious and ongoing performance; and it
is generally a collective social enterprise.

Masculinity refers to the body, and as the boys’ identities are defined and generally
described in terms of what they do with/to their bodies, I have embraced the concept of
embodiment (Turner 2000). Although there are a number of ways of defining
embodiment it needs to be understood as a social process (Elias 1978). Although bodies
are located in particular social, historical structures and spaces, the boys in this study are
viewed as embodied social agents, for they do not merely have a passive body which is
inscribed and acted upon, but they are actively involved in the development of their



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