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95th out of 1,274 books
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Dude, You're a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School
by
C.J. Pascoe
High school and the difficult terrain of sexuality and gender identity are brilliantly explored in this smart, incisive ethnography. Based on eighteen months of fieldwork in a racially diverse working-class high school, "Dude, You're a Fag "sheds new light on masculinity both as a field of meaning and as a set of social practices. C. J. Pascoe's unorthodox approa...more
Paperback, 227 pages
Published
June 1st 2007
by University of California Press
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After reading a reference to this book in Jessica Valenti's Full Frontal Feminism, I was moved to pick it up out of curiosity about the study of masculinity and gender identity. Maybe my women's college education was just too thorough, or my upbringing in suburban Ohio was just too similar, but I didn't find anything particularly surprising or revealing in Pascoe's book.
Based on the subtitle, I was hoping for a book that would speak to the construction of gender identity in high s...more
Based on the subtitle, I was hoping for a book that would speak to the construction of gender identity in high s...more
I had the kind of high hopes for "Dude You're a Fag" that were bound to leave me disappointed. It would've been impossible for the author to exhaustively cover absolutely everything I hoped she would about masculinity and sexual identity development in high school in a couple hundred pages. What's left, then, is a nonfiction work that is at times fascinating and at others deeply frustrating with its lack of information.
Pascoe sets out to earn her PhD by studying masculinity...more
Pascoe sets out to earn her PhD by studying masculinity...more
Joshua Peterson
rated it
Recommends it for:
educators, school administrators, and individuals working with teenagers
I came into reading this book with mixed expectations. The author approaches the issue of homophobia and sexism as linked issues stemming from a common problem of hetero-normativity, something that is both refreshing to see but also not really anything terribly groundbreaking. She approaches the young men she studies with a great deal of objectivity and empathy, and never once does she characterize heterosexual boys or boys that identify in a traditionally masculine fashion as being villains or ...more
My skepticism about ethnography and sociological methodology aside, I think Pascoe does a fair job of putting her fieldwork observations into conversation with feminist and queer theory. True, much of what she writes will not come as any big surprise to those who are up on teen culture and the use of the terms "gay," "fag," and "faggot" today, but I think her observations about the ways in which teenage boys are homophobic are the more innovative clincher. I somet...more
This is not a light read. Pascoe does hardcore research, resulting in am intensely documented and cited work. It is an excellent text for anyone working in schools or with middle and high school students.
Pascoe spent a year and a half in a high school mostly observing boys in a variety of settings. She documents the girls as well, but only how the boys act towards and with them. (She does meet with a group of girls that are lesbians, but only after hearing about them from the boy...more
Pascoe spent a year and a half in a high school mostly observing boys in a variety of settings. She documents the girls as well, but only how the boys act towards and with them. (She does meet with a group of girls that are lesbians, but only after hearing about them from the boy...more
I read this book as part of a Gender Reading Group started by a group of friends after taking a really fun and enlightening Gender Theory course.
All I can say is WOW. Sometimes sociology is so crazy because it brings to light things that are so embedded and taken for granted in our society. Reading this book was like going back to my high school. I literally pictured the halls of my school as I read.
I really liked her analysis of the word "fag" and how high sch...more
All I can say is WOW. Sometimes sociology is so crazy because it brings to light things that are so embedded and taken for granted in our society. Reading this book was like going back to my high school. I literally pictured the halls of my school as I read.
I really liked her analysis of the word "fag" and how high sch...more
This book should have been better than it was. I feel that 2.5 stars would have been more appropriate, but I decided to be generous.
As an English teacher at a school where machismo (and the homophobia that goes with it) rules, I was very excited to dig into a real discussion about how boys construct and express masculinity. CJ Pascoe fails to deliver any new insight. This book would serve as a decent introduction to the subject and acts as a fair literature review (homegirl has done ...more
As an English teacher at a school where machismo (and the homophobia that goes with it) rules, I was very excited to dig into a real discussion about how boys construct and express masculinity. CJ Pascoe fails to deliver any new insight. This book would serve as a decent introduction to the subject and acts as a fair literature review (homegirl has done ...more
(Reviewed for The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide)
“Cheering students filled River High’s gymnasium. Packed tightly in bleachers, they sang, hollered, and danced to loud hip-hop music. Over their heads hung banners celebrating fifty years of River High’s sports victories. The yearly assembly in which the student body voted for the most popular senior boy in the school to be crowned Mr. Cougar was under way, featuring six candidates performing a series of skits to earn student v...more
I used this for a gender and sexuality class. Thought-provoking. Students really connected to it, and used it to look at their own experiences in a new and critical way. The author is relentless in her analysis of seemingly innocent practices -- you don't have to agree with all of her conclusions to appreciate the value of her consistency, great for educational purposes. After a few chapters the phrase "compulsory heteronormativity" was second nature to me. And it has stuck with me.
Priscilla
rated it
Shelves:
culture,
feminist-and-feminist-friendly,
non-fiction,
philosophy,
political,
psychology,
queer,
sociology
I'll be back to give a more in depth review but I just wanted readers to know that this is not considered light reading. I thought it would be considering the title but this was an essay written for her PhD in psychology. I agree with the material Pascoe covers but, had it been written to appeal to an audience that has never considered things about masculinity mentioned in this essay instead of those with PhD's or people studying Gender & Sexuality Studies, it would have been much more appealing...more
Extremely repetitive; any one who attended a public high school will find nothing here that they didn't already know; in fact, most of what is written here can be witnessed first hand on any public transit bus in just about any city. The observations were about as juvenile as the teenage jocks need to prove their "masculinity".
This is one of the most interesting books I've ever read on gender and high school. How C.J. Pascoe has give readers an insight into the world of teenage boys, and frankly it's a frightening one. A must-read for anyone interested in how gender (and masculinity in particular) is constructed in the confines of a high school.
A really great read for anyone who works with adolescents to check out--and parents, too! A look at how high schools can be really hostile environments that impress gender norms on students in ways that can be SUPER harmful and inhumane, and at how we can make space for deviation and free expression in our schools, too!
Tiny Pants
rated it
I mainly wished this book were longer -- in it's ultra-concise format, Pascoe hits every point once, and I often wanted more. Particularly, more of her colorful (and often disturbing) examples from her fieldwork with California high school students. That said, for such a short book, it makes truly substantive contributions to the study of masculinity and sexualities, both in terms of how these constructs are upheld by institutions as well as in interactions.
Her chapter on methodology ...more
Her chapter on methodology ...more
Pascoe's analysis of an American high school is very eye-opening. I feel it points out very important gender-stamping in American high schools, and that school administrations should be aware of the stress they are putting on high school students to remain within traditional gender norms.
Now that the third wave of feminism is reaching out to men for support, I think it's great that Pascoe researched the effects of masculinity on the development of our young men. It's important to remember that gender can confine both female and male bodies.
Certainly opened my eyes to the ways that misogyny is still alive and well among both adults and teenagers. Most of all, I was surprised by the ways that openly gay high school girls could achieve/retain popularity by adopting masculine traits.
This book is awesome, starting with the title :) It's a dense ethnography, by which I mean she has lots and lots of anecdotes to make her points. This means it gets repetitive at times, but I think it's a sign of good research.
Made some nice discoveries about masculine behavior, but other than that, the book could have been a lot shorter. Also, she is quick to add her opinion rather than keeping it strictly scientific.
Decent book at analyzing sexuality in High schools, from personal experience a lot of it seems exaggerated, also i find it hard to believe that this was in Central California, and not somewhere in the midwest.
Shahab saraei
marked it as to-read
saw it in Library and got my attention...:)
the first pages seemed to be interesting...
I guess I will read it in two years time
the inspiration to me,was actually lily Allen by her "hag fag"
the first pages seemed to be interesting...
I guess I will read it in two years time
the inspiration to me,was actually lily Allen by her "hag fag"
Insightful. Fair warning, though--as with so much if social anthropology, sometimes she uses terms without an acknowledgement of the complicated history those terms have. Powerful work. HIGHLY recommended.
I read this book for my freshman english class. Our theme was masculinity. It was a very interesting read and really described sexuality and gender roles in high schools in a unique way.
This book is memorable to me for several reasons. Firstly, it reminds me of what turned out to be one of my favorite classes of my undergraduate career, filled with insightful voices and fascinating topics. Secondly, it has to do with gender, which is quite possibly my favorite reading topic of all time (at least for nonfiction). Thirdly, I, like most of my fellow Americans, have an obsession with things that claim to present "reality"; I just choose to seek my doses through ethnograph...more
extraordinarily insightful study of teenage masculinities. i've read other cultural studies/sociology books that i learned this much from, but few that were this well-written.
I'm jumping around from chapter to chapter but its a smart and insightful book that all teenagers should be forced to read in high school. The world would be a much better place.
Somewhere between a 3 and a 4 for me...
On the surface a great book, read and topic.
But I feel that the analysis and methods were lacking at times.
On the surface a great book, read and topic.
But I feel that the analysis and methods were lacking at times.
I read this for a sociology class, and it definitely influenced how I look at gender expression and the construction of masculinity--I quote it all the time.
C.J. Pascoe is a participant observer for one year researching masculinities manifested in adolescence in one "average" California high school. Using feminist and queer theory, Pascoe analyzes her observations in various groups of students and makes generalizations on those groups and individuals, while (mostly) providing one or no examples for those generalizations. With such limited time for observations, Pascoe really has shaky grounds for this ethnography, in which Pascoe employs f...more
Great look at a topic that's not discussed nearly as often as their female counterparts.
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