Policing young masculinities

Abstract

Recent ethnographic and qualitative research in schools has noted the ubiquity of homophobia among boys and young men, and has begun to address the significance of this not only as it concerns those boys derided and vilified as gay, but also as it impacts on the identities and experiences of boys in general (e.g. Epstein, 1997; Mac an Ghaill, 1994; Nayak and Kehily, 1996; Redman, 1998). Why are boys so homophobic and what are the effects of this on their identities? Drawing on the work of Judith Butler (1997), among others, this research has suggested that popular masculine identities are produced through homophobic performances. For example, working within this framework, Nayak and Kehily (1996) analyse boys’ homophobia as performances through which boys give substance to masculinity as well as constructing themselves as masculine. That is, boys’ homophobia is seen as a set of activities through which they publicly and repetitively assert their ‘normal’ masculinity through heterosexuality. Concomitantly, because of its status as ‘not masculine’, homosexuality is associated with femininity and the construction of masculinity is partially underpinned by projecting this ‘femininity’ onto particular boys who are singled out as gay or not sufficiently masculine. Nayak and Kehily suggest that the compulsive and repetitive way in which boys assert their masculinities through homophobia implies just how fragile and precarious these identities are. As Butler (1997: 237) observes, ‘crafting a sexual position … always involves becoming haunted by what’s excluded. And the more rigid the position the greater the ghost, and the more threatening it is in some way.’ Boys’ homophobic performances may thus be understood as ways of shoring up their masculinities by constructing the feminine other as an ever-present threat.