“I’m No Fag”

Does calling someone a “fag” change the way you perceive masculinity? At least in the sphere of hetero teen males, according to C.J. Pascoe (Dude, You’re A Fag, 2007), the answer is yes.
Any boy can be accused of being a “fag” even temporarily, if he fails at tasks that indicate a lack of masculine prowess. As a result, the fear of being labeled as a “fag” is so great that boys conform to the standard notions of masculinity to avoid the “fag” association at all costs. To further one’s masculinity, boys harass each other “in a verbal game of hot potato, each careful to deflect the insult by hurling it at someone else” (Pascoe 60). Pascoe established this aspect of behavior as the “fag discourse”; a form of social control that exists only in the language of straight males. The “specter of the fag” reminds the boys of the fluidity of the “fag”, in that any of them could become fags if they aren’t traditionally masculine.

Though it seems as though you could get called a fag for “anything”, as one teen from Pascoe’s study claims, there are certain actions, behavior and physical positioning that place one in danger of being called a fag. For example, the concern with maintaining one’s physical appearance is something only fags would do. Straight teenage boys would purposely wear tattered, muddied “beaters” to prove that they are “real” guys who aren’t the least worried about their appearances. Similarly, they sported loose, baggier outfits to assert their “straightness” and masculinity. Since only fags groom themselves regularly, straight guys found ways to differentiate themselves from the fags and distance themselves from the “fag identity”. In the same framework, dancing is practice that places boys’ masculinity in jeopardy. Boys would never dance together without the intention of embarrassing each other. Dancing too close to the extent that contact is sufficiently made also makes boys more susceptible to the “fag discourse”.

While the “fag discourse” seems only to permeate the social sphere of straight males, the fag slur is only targeted at white males, because African-American males are so “hyper-sexualized” in society. Relatively speaking, white males are likely to be called fags than black men simply because of their heightened masculinity. In a sense, “white” itself now contains a notion of femininity; therefore, white males feel the constant need to compulsively hurl the term “fag” at one another and engage in “fag discourse” to assert their masculinity, whereas black males have ability to engage in rituals deemed “fag-like”, such as dancing and grooming, without being labeled a fag.

The notion that the specter of the fag does indeed, contain racial implications is understandably hard to swallow; yet the idea of the “fag” as such a pervasive influence on straight guys that it compels them to police their own actions in accordance with the notion of masculinity is all the more daunting to every heterosexual male who has had at least one encounter with the “fag”.