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Sharing the same world: boys' relations with girls during their last year of primary school

2004; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 17; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/0954025042000301311

1360-0516

Jon Swain,

Children's Rights and Participation

Abstract This paper explores the effect of cross gender relations on the construction of boys' masculine identities. The findings are based on data gathered from a year long empirical study of 10 to 11‐year‐old boys set in three UK junior schools. Although masculinity is defined against femininity and boys needed to mark out a set of distinctions from themselves and girls, I found that most boys categorized girls as different (they are not us) rather than oppositional, and the most common reaction was one of detachment and disinterest. Rather than maintaining that there are two separate worlds, I argue that there are two complementary gendered cultures, sharing the one overall school world, which are further nuanced by social class and race/ethnicity. Although there was a tendency of boys to dominate space and girls were often excluded from playground games, many girls refused to be dominated by boys, and some were able to deliberately exercise power over them. 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The relatively high proportions of Indian and Jewish pupils at Highwoods and Petersfield means that ethnicity is also likely to have had a significant influence. A major influence in pupil's orientations to schooling came from their parents. Nearly every boy told me that 'gay' was the worst (in the sense that it was the most hurtful) name that they could be called. This is similar to Thorne's (1993 Thorne B (1993) Gender play: girls and boys in school New Brunswick Rutgers University Press [Google Scholar], p. 123) analogy of 'money in the bank'. In her study she argues that a boy called John was able to integrate with the girls without derogation because of his 'unquestioned masculinity' which stemmed, amongst other things, from his sporting prowess. Thorne makes the analogy of John being able to 'spend' his masculinity like 'money in the bank', which means that he had plenty of it. In her empirical study Renold (2000 Renold, E. (2000). 'Coming out': gender, (hetero)sexuality and the primary school. Gender and Education, 12: 309–326. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], p. 319) found a total of nine out of 21 boys talking about ' "fancying", "asking girls out" and being "boyfriends" ' (to girls). For safety, both boys and girls usually went through intermediaries when 'asking each other out'.