Plastic or phalloplasty? Negotiating masculinity and (cis)gender norms in schools and the academy

Abstract

Through an imagining of gender-queer space as a site that opens up a mesh of possibilities in schooling, this paper argues that a gender-queer hidden curriculum as enacted through a gender-queer space can be one possible corrective framework to the pervasive cis-norms and values that enact violence against queer, trans, and gender-fluid youth in schools. Using the respective authors’ counternarratives and an analysis found in dissensus, the authors argue that the significance of these spaces in as much about school safety as it is about unlearning normalized gender understandings in local and less local contexts.

Notes

1 To be clear, we are focusing this dialogue on contemporary possibilities within gender queer understandings. We recognize the historical presence of gender queer people and groups and their sociocultural significance. However, given the limited space of this article, our focus is on contemporary possibilities of outwardly present gender queerness.

2 We are non-binary, non-trans, queer scholars whose narratives are but two trajectories through infinitely possible positions of queerness. Similarly, from our position, queerness, transness, and gender are three deeply interrelated yet distinct constructions and it is our intention to treat them here as such.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Boni Wozolek

Dr. Boni Wozolek is a postdoctoral research fellow at Loyola University Maryland. Recipient of several nationally recognized awards, her work considers questions of social justice, qualitative research methods, and teaching practices that focus on the examination of race, gender (along with its multiple forms and expressions), and sexual orientation in schools.

Reagan P. Mitchell

Dr. Reagan P. Mitchell is a visiting professor in the Department of Educational Studies at Colgate University. His research examines the cultural and historical influences of race, gender, sexuality, space, gentrification, auditory architecture, and communal wisdom on education. His scholarship brings together curriculum theory, ethnic studies, critical geography, and sound studies.