High school and the difficult terrain of sexuality and gender identity are brilliantly explored in this smart, incisive ethnography. Based on eighteen months of fieldwork in a racially diverse working-class high school, "Dude, You're a Fag" sheds new light on masculinity both as a field of meaning and as a set of social practices. C. J. Pascoe's unorthodox approach analyzes masculinity as not only a gendered process, but also a sexual one. She demonstrates how the "specter of the fag" becomes a disciplinary mechanism for regulating heterosexual as well as homosexual boys and how the "fag discourse" is as much tied to gender as it is to sexuality.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 1. Making Masculinity: Adolescence, Identity, and High School Revenge of the Nerds What Do We Mean by Masculinity? Bringing in Sexuality Rethinking Masculinity, Sexuality, and Bodies Methodology Organization of the Book 2. Becoming Mr. Cougar: Institutionalizing Heterosexuality and Masculinity at River High River High's Gender and Sexuality Curriculum Pedagogy: The Unofficial Gender and Sexuality Curriculum School Rituals: Performing and Policing Gender and Sexuality Gender and Sexuality Regimes 3. Dude, You're a Fag: Adolescent Male Homophobia What Is a Fag? Gendered Meanings Becoming a Fag: Fag Fluidity Embodying the Fag: Ricky's Story Racializing the Fag Where the Fag Disappears: Drama Performances Reframing Homophobia 4. Compulsive Heterosexuality: Masculinity and Dominance A Stud with the Ladies Getting Girls Touching Sex Talk Girls Respond I'm Different from Other Guys Females Are the Puppets 5. Look at My Masculinity! Girls Who Act Like Boys Tomboy Pasts Rebeca and the Basketball Girls The Homecoming Queen: Jessie Chau The Gay/Straight Alliance Girls Embodying Masculinity 6. Conclusion: Thinking about Schooling, Gender, and Sexuality Masculinity at River High Theoretical Implications Practical Steps Appendix: What If a Guy Hits on You? Intersections of Gender, Sexuality, and Age in Fieldwork with Adolescents Notes References Index

Author Biography

C.J. Pascoe is Postdoctoral Scholar with the Digital Youth Project at the Institute for the Study of Social Change, University of California, Berkeley.