Masculinities, Mateship, and Young Boys: Defending Borders, Playing Footy, and Kissing Meg

Abstract

In chapter 4 we explored how whiteness constructed exclusions and possibilities in the “racing” of young girls’ identities. In this chapter, we turn attention to how white masculinities construct the “racing” of young boys’ identities. In particular, we look at how discourses of white, hegemonic masculinity create dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in an early childhood setting and how they can be used to sanction white boys who step outside of those discourses. Given discourses shape our sense of who we are, discourses of whiteness and masculinity embody a politics of identity that shape what boys understand what they can do, think, and feel, what they are permitted to do, think, and feel, what they should desire, and what they can change.