Assignment 05
In her book Dude, You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School, C.J. Pascoe illustrates the influences of River High’s students, staff, and administration in regard to ideas centering around gender and sexuality. It is clear that most of the educators of River High are intimidated by and unwilling to participate in meaningful discussions involving sex and sexuality. They are far more concerned with censoring and minimizing these discussions, rather than taking the necessary efforts to ensure that students are informed and are engaging in safe, protected sex. This is evident through the interactions of several teachers and students within their classrooms.
Though she appears to have effective teaching strategies and a positive reputations among the student body, Ms. Mac is included among the teachers who promote heteronormativity. Not only is her classroom adorned with photographs of girl-boy pairings from the schools’ reoccurring Winter Ball, which discourages homosexuality, but she failed to educate her students after the Safer Sex Party’s failed attempt to distribute condoms among her class. The male students’ believed their possession of these condoms indicated their masculinity and heterosexuality (Pascoe 33). Ms. Mac did not properly address this belief, and instead focused her attention on her male students rather than ensuring her female students were just as informed about sex.
Even the Principal of the school exhibited concern for Pascoe’s plan to address ideas surrounding gender within the school, as opposed to ensuring he and his staff did this first (Pascoe 28). Principal Hobart did not attempt to discover the attitudes his students held towards sexual identities, and served as a driving factor of heteronormativity.
Other teacher and administrators are described as having an interest in the sexual activities, expression, and identities, but were not publicly expressive of it. These administrators strived to “protect” students from these sensitive topics (Pascoe 28).
Mr. McNally, in my opinion, is one of the only educators that can be credited with properly addressing the topic of homosexuality. Mr. McNally challenges his students’ use of the word “gay” to describe something or someone that appears to stray from the norm. He intertwines the idea that using “gay” as an adjective in this manner is equivalent to using a person’s race as a mean’s to insult them (Pascoe 38). In this instance, we see how students can be partially at blame for River High’s heteronormative school culture.
I believe that the River High educators are mainly at fault for the heteronormativity that is pushed in their school environment. Students seem more than willing to express their beliefs surrounding sex, but are often limited by their superiors. They are often misguided by their seniors, which only allows this heteronormative culture to flourish.
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