Skip to main content
University of California Press

Dude, You're a Fag

Masculinity and Sexuality in High School, With a New Preface
by C. J. Pascoe (Author)
Paperback eBook
Price: $29.95 / £25.00
Publication Date: Nov 2011
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 248
ISBN: 9780520271487
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Request an Exam or Desk Copy(opens in new window)RightsLink(opens in new window)Read an Excerpt(opens in new window)
Recommend to your Library (PDF)(opens in new window)Rights and Permissions

About the Book

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.

About the Author

C.J. Pascoe is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Oregon.

From Our Blog

Pride Month: LGBTQ Politics

In recognition of the latest milestone for LGBTQ rights in the United States, UC Press celebrates the landmark Supreme Court ruling that protects gay and transgender workers from workplace discrimination. UC Press is honored to publish titles that shed light on the unique experiences of LGBTQ indivi
Read More

Table of Contents

Preface to the 2012 Edition
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

Reviews

“This insightful peek into the realities of high school should be read by researchers, administrators, teachers, and parents. . . . Pascoe’s analysis is sophisticated, mapping the intricacies involved in the relationships between sexuality, gender, race, and class. Yet, her work is clean-cut and difficult to argue against.”
— Men & Masculinities
“An incisive assessment.”
— Seattle Gay News
“Introspective, fascinating, consistently interesting.”
— Bay Area Reporter
“Current, typically salient, personally informative, [and] lively in style. . . . The exemplary fieldwork vignettes and case studies are abundant, rich, vivid, and experientially resonant. At the same time, [Pascoe] has thoroughly theorized her narrative, providing a fine conceptual vocabulary, a probing critical framework, and a set of intelligent practical recommendations.”
— General Anthropology Bulletin
“Academic, but accessible.”
— Bottom Line
"Pascoe is able to witness the quotidian rituals of heterosexual masculinity, its precariousness, its fragility and ultimately, its dangerous lashing out at all that can undermine it."
— Social Forces
"Pascoe gives a fly-on-the-wall experience of sexuality in high school."
— Journal of Gender Studies
"Pascoe's work challenges research on gender, and specifically masculinity, to address sexuality, race, and other significant factors as aspects of the social construction of masculinities."
— Gender & Society
"Not only is the information interesting and relevant to our society, but Pascoe’s book is a great representation of ethnographic protocol."
— Lambda Alpha Journal
"Usefully calls for a more sophisticated approach to issues surrounding teenage sexuality, masculinity and power than is generally enabled by uncritical applications of a generic notion of homophobia."
— Culture, Health, & Sexuality
"The book nicely illustrates how masculinity comprises thoughts and ideas that are collectively defined and asserted, and how salient such issues are for high school students."
— 126 Spaces for Difference: An Interdisciplinary Journal
"Laced with evocative stories based on ethnographic observations and interviews with high school kids, Dude, You're a Fag tells gripping stories of life in high school, while helping to extend the cutting edge of scholarly theory on gender and sexualities. C.J. Pascoe has contributed a highly readable and extremely insightful book that will be required reading for students and scholars of youth and the construction of sex and gender in schools."—Michael A. Messner, author of Taking the Field: Women, Men and Sports

"This is a strikingly original study of schoolboys renegotiating class, gender, and ethnicity, along with the labeling as 'fag'. Here homophobia is at work in a path breaking study, which is also a highly readable must-read."—Ken Plummer, University of Essex, and editor of Sexualities

"We know that schools are a central site for the construction of gender identity, but until C. J. Pascoe's careful and compassionate ethnography, we haven't known exactly how gender conformity is extracted from a slurry of humiliations, fears, and anxieties. Boys will not be boys unless they are made to be, by violence, real or implied. A troubling, thoughtful work."—Michael Kimmel, author of Manhood in America

"Pascoe's thoughtful analysis of the rhetorical and interactional processes that constitute the field of masculinity for young, high school men coming of age is rich and engaging. With fresh insight and careful observation, Pascoe sheds new light on the complex interplay of masculinity, homophobia, sexuality, and the body, compelling us to rethink the formation of gender identities, collective gender practices, and the reproduction of gender inequalities."—Amy L. Best, author of Prom Night: Youth, Schools and Popular Culture and Fast Cars, Cool Rides: The Accelerating World of Youth and Their Cars

"In this superb ethnography of daily life in a contemporary high school, C. J. Pascoe highlights the sexualized dynamics of youthful masculinity. With vivid detail and perceptive analysis, she examines the 'fag talk' which pervades boys' conversations; the convergence of gender, sexual, and racialized practices in school rituals like the 'Mr. Cougar' contest; and the experiences of girls who display themselves as masculine. The result is a book that breaks fresh ground in masculinity and gender studies-and is a very good read!"—Barrie Thorne, author of Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School