The resources and strategies that 10-11 year old boys use to construct masculinities in the school setting



of speed in the playground, sometimes involving a direct head-to-head confrontation. At
Petersfield and Westmoor Abbey, some of the playground games (such as the chase-
game, Bulldog, at Petersfield, and Runouts at Westmoor Abbey) had been deliberately
created around a competitive test of speed, for being a fast runner meant that you were
more often a winner, and losers risked subordination and exclusion. The following
exchange comes from two boys at Petersfield:

Jameil:

If you’re a slow coach, you won’t be able to catch with us...’cos
the main fastest kids are like, me, CT, Benjamin and [... ] Hussein

JS:

They’re the fastest, and is that quite important for the games you
play...if you’re a real slow coach you get caught?

Jameil:

As we’re the fastest we can get to the other side easily

Matthew:

And then when we play with Rod, he always gets caught first, but
we don’t let him be ‘it’ [in Bulldog] because he’s always going to
be caught

Being fast also meant that a boy could excel in a greater range of sports, especially in
football. The relationship between sport and popularity/status is also affirmed in this
extract from Westmoor Abbey.

JS:

How important is it to be good at sport?

Chris:

Quite important because if you’re good at sport, it means that
you’re a fast runner, you can get away quickly, you’re good at
games/

Ryan:

If you’re good at games, and you’re a fast runner, you can get past
people/

Chris:

You get pretty popular if you’re good at sport

Bodily strength was also another important resource and was a prerequisite in physical
games that were deliberately designed by the boys to test toughness and stamina. As was
the case with the fastest runners, the boys were also able to name the strongest boy in the

10



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