In every and any given high school you will find boys being boys and girls being girls. The boys in their perhaps dirty looking clothes and girls wearing short skirts and low cut tops. There also being their gender by their iterations with each other, such as girls giggling at the boys flirtation remarks or the boys looking at a girl walking by. Looking into this typical high school you don’t think anything of this way of dressing or even the interaction between the sexes. In C. J. Pascoe’s book Dude you’re a Fag, she explores these roles the sexes take and how both male and female play along in a specific high school.
One of Pascoe’s favorite spot to observe the boys “talk” was the weight room. Here, the boys felt free to talk about women in this boy zone. In this room the boys talked about their sexual gains over girls. Each boy tries to impress the other by what they have done, in a sort of one upmanship game. The boys would also show off these exploits of girls by bringing in a trophy of the girls underwear. The boys in the weight room, as well as other male dominated areas have a need to display their dominance/control over girls’ bodies. They do this to show how masculine they are and to avoid being labeled a fag. Boys play in to this gender role of objectifying girls because it’s culturally expectable. One note Pascoe makes is that the boys are more likely to behave in this way when in groups of only males and that one on one with a girl they do not show the dominance/control they would talk about before.
Girls also play into this role of weak and sexual objects. By doing this they gain a kind of power and they gain attention from boys. Pascoe does not go into this as much as masculinity in both male and female. But this also plays a large part in high schools and the “real world”. Since gaining status in school is about attention from boys, girls use their sexuality as a form of social power. This means it is not only males objectifying females but that they were doing it to themselves. Unconsciously or not they feel the need to do this to be accepted. But what in American culture dictates that this is the way it has to be ? These teenagers are just following the rules when it comes to gender roles. Such as with the Mr. Cougar skits where the two nerds made hero save their weak helpless girlfriends by getting buff and defeating their rivals.
A high is the perfect place to study the interaction between males and females and how they play into gender roles. This environment reflects the American society, just on a smaller scale. Pascoe uses this environment to take a look at how masculinity and sexuality is played out among students. That most students go along with what it socially acceptable. The boy are dominant, while the girls are weak and our sexual exploits. While a few people may toy with these norms, generally they are not accepted and become the outcastes of the school.
One of Pascoe’s favorite spot to observe the boys “talk” was the weight room. Here, the boys felt free to talk about women in this boy zone. In this room the boys talked about their sexual gains over girls. Each boy tries to impress the other by what they have done, in a sort of one upmanship game. The boys would also show off these exploits of girls by bringing in a trophy of the girls underwear. The boys in the weight room, as well as other male dominated areas have a need to display their dominance/control over girls’ bodies. They do this to show how masculine they are and to avoid being labeled a fag. Boys play in to this gender role of objectifying girls because it’s culturally expectable. One note Pascoe makes is that the boys are more likely to behave in this way when in groups of only males and that one on one with a girl they do not show the dominance/control they would talk about before.
Girls also play into this role of weak and sexual objects. By doing this they gain a kind of power and they gain attention from boys. Pascoe does not go into this as much as masculinity in both male and female. But this also plays a large part in high schools and the “real world”. Since gaining status in school is about attention from boys, girls use their sexuality as a form of social power. This means it is not only males objectifying females but that they were doing it to themselves. Unconsciously or not they feel the need to do this to be accepted. But what in American culture dictates that this is the way it has to be ? These teenagers are just following the rules when it comes to gender roles. Such as with the Mr. Cougar skits where the two nerds made hero save their weak helpless girlfriends by getting buff and defeating their rivals.
A high is the perfect place to study the interaction between males and females and how they play into gender roles. This environment reflects the American society, just on a smaller scale. Pascoe uses this environment to take a look at how masculinity and sexuality is played out among students. That most students go along with what it socially acceptable. The boy are dominant, while the girls are weak and our sexual exploits. While a few people may toy with these norms, generally they are not accepted and become the outcastes of the school.
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