Education-gender-pupils' sexual and gender identities

Question 1

Give factors that reinforce gender and sexual identities

Answer 1

1. Double standards
2. Verbal abuse
3. The male gaze
4. Male peer groups
5. Teacher and discipline
6. Female peer groups

Question 2

How do double standards reinforce gender identities according to feminists?

Answer 2

Feminists see this as evidence of patriarchal ideology that justifies male power and devalues women.
It is a form of social control that reinforces gender inequality by keeping females subordinate to males

Question 3

How has verbal abuse reinforced pupils’ gender identities

Answer 3

-Connell- boys use name calling to put girls down if they behave/dress in a certain way
e.g boys called girls “slags” if they appeared to be sexually available and “drags if they didn’t
->name calling is a way of maintaining male power

Question 4

How has the male gaze reinforced pupils’ sexual and gender identities?

Answer 4

-Mac an Ghaill sees it as a form of surveillance through which dominant heterosexual masculinity is reinforced and femininity devalued
- it is a way boys prove their masculinity to their friends

Question 5

How have male peer groups reinforced gender identities?

Answer 5

Male peer groups use verbal abuse, especially in anti-school subcultures to reinforce their own definitions of masculinity

Question 6

How have teachers and discipline reinforced gender identities

Answer 6

-Askew and Ross found that male teachers often have a protective attitude towards female colleagues
-e.g coming into their classes to “rescue” them by threatening pupils who are being disruptive -> reinforcing the idea that women cannot cope alone

Question 7

How have female peer groups reinforced gender and sexual identities?

Answer 7

Archer-w/c girls gained symbolic capital (status and popularity) from their female peers by performing hyper-sexual identities