Dude You're a Fag Reveiw

Dude, You’re A Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School. C. J. Pascoe: University of California Press (2007). 227pp. $16.00

Dude, You’re A Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School by C. J. Pascoe explores the daily high school life of male students and how they subconsciously try to prove their masculinity to their peers and put down anyone, namely guys, who may appear to lack masculinity; guys who lacked this idea of masculinity were notably called “fags.” The purpose for this fieldwork and ethnography is to show that masculinity and [hetero]sexuality are tied together in a sense. Pascoe spends 18 months at River High School in California, where she outlines the conversations and behaviors of and between students, teachers, and administrators. This way Pascoe shows how heteronormative high school is and how an institution such as this plays a vital role in the molding of masculinity in young males. In this ethnography, it is clear that Pascoe feels as if high school encourages heterosexuality in males while discouraging homosexuality. This notion reigned prevalent when Pascoe outlined an interaction between two teachers, Mr. Ford and Mr. Kellogg, and a student, Huey (39). During this encounter Mr. Ford explains to Mr. Kellogg that he “had to teach him [Huey] a lesson” because apparently Huey had given Mr. Ford the finger. In response, Mr. Ford says that he told Huey, “You should be doing that to girls, not to me.” As they laughed about it, Mr. Kellogg’s response was, “I don’t even know if Huey knows what that is yet! But I’m sure someone has told him.” As a result of this encounter Pascoe stated that, “In doing so Mr. Ford invoked the commonsense notions of masculinity in which, because Huey was a boy, he should be ‘fucking’ girls and not Mr. Ford. This sort of interaction reaffirmed that, as a boy, Huey should be participating in masculine behaviors such as engaging in sexual activities with girls.”

Pascoe even outlines certain rituals that the school has that reinforce heterosexism and homophobia. This allows Pascoe to bring in what she calls “fag discourse,” which she defined as how “boys discipline themselves and each other through joking relationships.”(54) To the students, being called a fag was “the lowest thing you could call someone.”(55) Pascoe even goes on to explore masculinity in girls when she introduces the “Basketball Girls” and the girls of the Gay/Straight Alliance (GSA). Though both of these groups do not conform to the gender norms, the “Basketball Girls” engage in the stereotypical notions of masculinity and the