Gender Differnces In Achivement - Pupils Sexual And Gender Identities

Question 1

The ‘hegemonic masculinity’ - Connell (1995)

Answer 1

• Connell - ‘the hegemonic masculinity’ - the dominance of heterosexual masculine identity and the subordination of female and gay identities

Question 2

1. Double standards

Answer 2

• a double standard exist when we apply one set of moral standards to one group but a different a set to another group in the case of gender identity. Lees identifies a double standard of sexual mortality in which boys boast about their own sexual exploits, but call a girl ‘slag’ if she doesn’t have a steady boyfriend or if she dresses and speaks in a certain way. Sexual conquest is approved of and given status by male peers and ignored by male teachers, but ‘promiscuity’ among girls attacks negative labels
• feminist see these double standards and an example of a patriarchal ideology that justifies male power and devalues women. Double standards can be seen as a from of social control that reinforces gender inequality by keeping females subordinate to males

Question 3

2. Verbal abuse

Answer 3

• what Connell calls ‘a rich vocabulary of abuse’ is one of the ways in which dominate gender and sexual identities are reinforced. E.g, boys use name calling to put girls down if they behave or dress in certain ways. Lees found that boys called girls ‘slags’ if they appeared to be sexually available - and ‘drags’ if they didn’t
• similarly, peachter sees name calling as helping to shape gender identity and maintain male power. The use of negative labels such as ‘gay’, ‘queer’ and ‘Lezzie’ are ways in which pupils police each other sexual identity.
• e.g, Parker found that boys were labelled gay simply for being friendly with girls or female teachers. Both Lees and peachter note that these labels often bear no relation to pupils actual sexual behaviour. Their function is simply to reinforce gender norms and identities

Question 4

3. The male gaze

Answer 4

• there is also a visual aspect to the way pupils control each others identities. Mac an Ghaill refers to this as the ‘male gaze’: the way male pupils and teachers look girls up and down, seeing them as sexual objects and making judgements about their appearance
• Mac an Ghaill sees the male gaze as a form of surveillance through which dominate heterosexual masculinity is reinforced and feminist devalued. It is one of the ways boys prove their masculinity to their friends and often combined with constant. Boys who do not display their heterosexuality in this way run the risk of being labelled gay

Question 5

4. Male peer groups

Answer 5

• male peer groups also use verbal abuse to reinforce their definitions of masculinity. E.g, as studies by Epstein and Willis show, boys in anti school subcultures often accuse boys who want to do well at school being gay or effeminate
• similarly. Mac and Ghaills study of Parnell school examines how peer groups reproduced a range of different class based on masculine gender identities. E.g, the working class ‘Macho lads’ were dismissive of other working class boys who worked hard and aspired to middle class careers, referring to then as ‘dickhead achievers’. By contrast, middle class ‘real Englishmenn’ projected an image of ‘effortless achievement’ - of succeeding without trying to
• interestingly, redman and Mac an Ghaill found that the dominant definition of masculine identity changes from that of the dominant definition of masculine identity changes from that of the macho lads in the lower school to that of real Englishmen in the sixth form
• this represents a shift away from a working class definition based on toughness to a middle class one based on intellectual ability. This reflects the more middle class composition and atmosphere of the sixth form

Question 6

5. Female peer groups: policing identity

Answer 6

• archer shows how working class girls gain symbolic capital from their female peers by performing a hyper heterosexual feminine identity. This involves constructing a glamorous or ‘sexy’ Nike appearance using particular brands and styles. Female peers police idiots and girls risk making themsleves unpopular and being called a ‘tramp’ if they fail to conform
• ringroses small scale study of 13-14 yr old working class girls peer groups in a south wales school found that being popular was crucial to the girls identity. As the girls made a transition from a girls friendship culture into a heterosexual dating culture, they faced tension between:
• an idealised feminine identity
• a sexualised identity

Question 7

What is an idealised feminine identity?

Answer 7

• of showing locality to the female peer group, being non competitive and getting along with everybody in the friendship culture

Question 8

What is a sexualised identity?

Answer 8

• involved competing for boys in the daiting culture

Question 9

Female peer groups: policing identity - currier et al (2007)

Answer 9

• currie et al argues, while relationships with boys can confer symbolic capital, this is a high risk game. This is because girls are forces to perform a balancing act between these two identities:
• girls who are too competitive and/or think themselves better than their peers risk ‘slut shaming’ - being labelled as sluts and excluded from the friendship culture
• on the other hand, girls who dont compete for boyfriends may face ‘frigid shamming’ by the other girls.
• shaming is thus a social control device by which schoolgirls police, regulate and discipline each others identities

Question 10

What is a boffin identity

Answer 10

• girls who want to be successful educationally may feel the need to conform to the schools notion of the ideal feminine pupil identity. As reay found, this involved the girls having to perform an asexual identity, presenting themselves as lacking any interest in boyfriends or popular fashion
• as a result, they risk being given the identity of ‘boffin’ and excluded by other girls. However, as francis found, middle class female boffins may respond in kind by defining other, working class girls, as ‘chavs’

Question 11

6. Teacher discipline

Answer 11

• research shoes that teachers also play a part in reinforcing dominat definitions of gender identity. Haywood and Mac and Ghaill found that male teachers told boys off for ‘behaving like girls’ and teased them when they gained lower marks in tests than girls . Teachers tended to ignore boys verbal abuse of girls and even blamed girls for attracting it
• askew and Ross show how male teachers behaviour can subtly reinforce messages about gender. E.g, male teachers often have a protective attitudes towards female colleagues, coming into their classes to ‘rescue’ them by threatening pupils who are being disruptive. However, this reinforces the idea that women cannot cope alone