Dude You Re A Fag Analysis

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the term 'Faggot ' is "used as an insulting and contemptuous term for a male homosexual" and is classified as offensive language. Most people are well aware that this term is offensive. Regardless it is still often used in certain areas of our society. Language is known to evolve over time, or be used differently in certain contexts. The use of the term 'Faggot ' or its shorter version 'Fag ' has been popular in high schools across America; it was not uncommon to hear it in the halls of my high school. Author C.J. Pascoe delved in to the high school world to investigate this practice and wrote the book Dude You 're A Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School displaying her findings. During her

Specifically, she aimed to study the role of masculinity in the everyday behaviors of the students. The form of study conducted by Pascoe was an ethnography. An ethnography is defined as a "sociological method that explores how people live and make sense of their lives with one another in particular places" (Columbia University). Ethnographies are most common when studying a certain culture or subset of people, in this case high schoolboys. Because Pascoe inserted herself into the school environment with the boys, she got to witness their experiences and behavior firsthand over a long period of time. This helped her to obtain a more genuine understanding of how they use the term fag and how the

In the beginning of the book, Pascoe writes about watching a skit being performed at an assembly. The boys originally look nerdy and weak, and their girlfriends are stolen by 'gangstas '. A girl then comes on stage with weights to train them, but they cannot even lift the weights and everyone laughs because they are weaker than a female. The boys are being ridiculed and laughed at because a girl is displaying more masculinity than them. Eventually they could easily lift the weights that they struggled with at first, and they confronted the 'gangstas ' and got their girls back (Pascoe 1-3). This skit was significant enough to mention in the book because it showed the setting, and it showed what the high school boys thought of masculinity and how it should be enacted. It is made clear that masculinity is very important to these boys and heterosexuality can be a big part of masculinity. Without their masculinity, they lose status. This is why gender policing becomes so prominent between high school boys. Gender policing is described by sociologists as "responses to the violation of gender rules aimed at promoting conformity." (Wade 71). In this case when a boy does something that is not seen as masculine, he will likely be reprimanded by those around him. The most common form of gender policing among these high school boys is the use of the term 'fag '. This may seem odd as 'fag ' is supposed to attack someone 's sexuality, not gender expression, but the meaning