EDUCATION - Sexual and Gender Identities Flashcards
What are the 6 factors that affect a students’ sexual and gender identity in education?
Double standards, Verbal abuse, Male gaze, Male peer groups, Female peer groups, and Teacher discipline.
What sociologist studied Double standards and what did they say?
Lees (1993) = She identified double standards of sexual morality; boys boast about their sexual exploits or ‘conquests’ but call a girl a ‘slag’ if she doesn’t have a steady boyfriend/if she dresses or speaks in a certain way.
What 4 sociologists studied Verbal abuse and what did they say?
Connell = ‘A rich vocabulary of abuse’ –> This is one of the ways in which dominant gender and sexual identities are reinforced. EG: Boys name calling girls can put girls down if they behave or dress in certain ways.
Lees = Found that boys called girls ‘slags’ if they appeared to be sexuality available, and ‘drags’ if they didn’t.
Paechter = The use of negative labels, such as ‘queer’, maintain male power and help to shape gender identity = Students’ police each other’s sexual identities.
Parker = Boys were labelled ‘gay’ for simply being friendly with girls or female teachers.
What sociologist studied Male gaze and what did they say?
Mac an Ghaill = Sees the male gaze as a form of surveillance; through this, dominant heterosexual masculinity is reinforced and femininity is devalued. Boys prove their masculinity by retelling stories of their ‘sexual conquests’; boys who do not do this run the risk of being called ‘gay’.
What 2 sociologists studied male peer groups and what did they say?
Mac an Ghaill = They studied Parnell school –> Their study shows how peer groups reproduce a large range of different class-based masculine gender identities, with ‘macho’ working-class lads being dismissive of hard working, working-class boys who aspired to middle class careers, referring to them as ‘dickhead achievers’, and in contrast middle-class ‘real Englishmen’ project an image of ‘effortless achievement’.
Redman and Mac an Ghaill = They found that the dominant definition of masculine identity changes from that of macho lads in the lower school to real Englishmen in sixth form.
What 4 sociologists studied Female peer groups and what did they say?
Archer = Demonstrates how working-class girls gain symbolic capital by performing a hyper-heterosexual image/feminine identity; this involves constructing a glamorous, ‘sexy’ Nike appearance using particular clothing brands and styles, with female peers policing this identity and girls risking unpopularity if they fail to conform.
Ringrose = Her study of 13-14 year old girls in a South Wales school found that popularity was crucial to female identity, and as they transitioned from female friendship culture to heterosexual dating culture, they face tension between an idealised feminine identity and a sexualised identity.
Currie et al = They found that boys can confer symbolic capital, but it is high risk, as a balancing act is created between the identities - girls who view themselves as better than their peers risk ‘slut shaming’ and exclusion from the friendship culture, whilst those who don’t compete for boyfriends face ‘frigid shaming’ by other girls. Shaming becomes a social control device by which school girls police, regulate and discipline the identities of others.
Reay (2001) - Their study involved girls having to perform an asexual identity, showing a lack of interest in boyfriends or popular fashions –> They risk having a ‘boffin identity’ and being excluded by both sexes. HOWEVER = Francis found that middle-class girls that are labelled ‘boffins’ respond by defining working-class girls as ‘chavs’.
What 2 sociologists studied Teachers and discipline and what did they say?
Haywood and Mac an Ghaill = They found that male teachers told boys off for behaving like girls, and teased them for performing worse in exams than girls. Teachers tended to ignore verbal abuse of girls and even blamed them to attracting it.
Askew and Ross = They found that male teachers and their behaviour reinforces messages about gender, with male teachers having a protective attitude towards female colleagues by ‘rescuing’ them by threatening disruptive pupils. However, this reinforces negative power stereotypes and the idea girls cannot cope alone.
What is a ‘idealised feminine identity’?
Showing loyalty to the female peer group, being non-competitive and getting along with everybody in the friendship culture.
What is a ‘sexualised identity’?
An identity that involves competing for boys in the dating culture.
What is a ‘boffin’ identity?
This is girls who want to be successful educationally; they may feel the need to conform to the school’s notion of the ‘ideal feminine pupil identity’. Reay found that this involved girls having to perform an ‘asexual identity’; this meant they presented themselves as lacking any interest in boyfriends or popular fashion.
