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



if they were perceived to be a not very good make. Many researchers (see, for example,
Connell 1990, Epstein 1996, Johnson 1996, Mason 1996, Epstein and Johnson 1998,
Gilbert and Gilbert 1998) argue that dominant masculinity sees homosexuality as a threat
and so attempts to distance itself by vilifying and oppressing it through homophobia. By
doing so, the boys are making the point that their own sexualities are entirely ‘straight’
and ‘unfeminine’ in every way, and ‘in a doubly defining moment the homophobic
performance consolidate[s] the heterosexual masculinity of Self and the homosexual
femininity of Other’ (Kehily and Nayak 1997: 82). Hence it can also be argued that by
subordinating alternative masculinities/sexualities, these performances also, by default,
subordinate femininities which, therefore, include all girls. Some boys told me that they
only called other boys names like ‘gay’ or ‘queer’ for a joke or a laugh, and that it was
not meant to be ‘nasty’ or ‘harmful’. However, as Gilbert and Gilbert (1998) point out,
these names are more than a personal insult as the victims are implicated in wider
discourses of public condemnation, and so endure the abuse from an entire community.
At the very least homophobia should be regarded as a form of bullying, while other
writers (see, for example, Epstein 1996, Salisbury and Jackson1996, Skelton 2001) argue
that it should be regarded as a form of sexual harassment.

In many ways, homophobia is another aspect of masculine performance (Nayak and
Kehily 1996). Epstein (1996) maintains that homophobia also plays a fundamental role
in regulating and constructing heterosexual masculinities in schools: masculinity and
heterosexuality are entwined and thus to be a ‘real’ boy (or girl) is to be heterosexual.
Parker (1996) asserts that these homophobic insults should be conceptualised in terms of
gender as opposed to sexuality, and that they therefore imply being ‘non-masculine’ and
‘effeminate’ rather than homosexual. However, the essential point is that homophobia is
used to police and control the general behaviour of boys
and their sexuality, and is used
as a strategy to position boys at the bottom of the masculine hierarchy.

Sometimes, boys appeared to notice the seeming incongruity of calling a boy ‘gay’ and’ a
girl’ (almost) at the same time. As Timothy (from Highwoods) said: ‘My mum just tells
me things to say to them, like, erm, well, ‘cos they also call me gay and I say, ‘Well at

21



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