'If You Don't Kiss Me, You're Dumped': Boys, boyfriends and heterosexualised masculinities in the primary school

Abstract

This paper explores the primary school as a key social and cultural site for the production of heterosexualities and utilises Judith Butler's concept of the 'heterosexual matrix' to explore the regulation of hetero/sexuality and in particular the inter-connectedness of heterosexuality, homosexuality and hegemonic masculinity. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork from a study of children's constructions of their gender and sexual identities it explores the different ways in which Year 6 (10/11-year-old) boys engage with, practise and occupy 'heterosexualities' and how integral, yet complex and contradictory heterosexual performances are to the production of 'proper' boys. For example, constructing heterosexualised masculinities through boyfriend/girlfriend discourses is especially problematic for boys when intimacy with girls can be simultaneously contaminating and masculinity confirming. The paper also illustrates how primary school boys define and produce their heterosexualities through various public projections of (hetero)sexual fantasies, imagined (hetero)sexual futures, misogynistic objectifications of girls and women, and homophobic/anti-gay performances towards boys and sexualised forms of harassment towards girls.