Re/theorising gender: female masculinity and male femininity in the classroom?

Abstract

Recent gender theorising has been enlivened by post‐structuralist accounts of gender as ‘disembodied’; the reading of gender performances as distinct from sexed bodies. However, there has been little application of such theoretical positions to empirical analysis in gender and education. This article employs two such positions – that of ‘female masculinity and male femininity’, and that of ‘gender monoglossia and heteroglossia’ – to data raised from a research project on high‐achieving pupils. It is argued that although cases of female masculinity and male femininity are identified, such labels can usefully be applied to only a very small number of pupils, and even here there are profound problems in the conceptual application. The concept of gender heteroglossia appeared applicable to a far larger number of pupils. It is argued that this latter concept offers a less rigid application, that can incorporate analysis both of continuing patterns of gender inequality (as reflective of gender monoglossia), and of individual, gender‐transgressive (heteroglossic) performances.

Keywords:

• gender
• female masculinity
• male femininity
• gender heteroglossia
• gender theory
• school pupils

Notes

1. The project was title ‘The Gendered Subjectivities of High Achieving Pupils’. The project team included Becky Francis (Principal Investigator, Roehampton University), Christine Skelton (Co‐applicant, University of Birmingham), and Barbara Read (Roehampton University).

2. Albeit the project team do not subscribe to the view that achievement should be conceived so narrowly (Francis and Skelton 2005).

3. This involved all pupils undertaking a brief survey in which they were asked a range of indicative questions including ‘Which student do you most like in your class?’ ‘Which student would other people say is most popular?’, and ‘Which student would you most like to be like?’

4. Queer both in the metaphorical sense developed within Queer Theory, in their troubling of dominant gender norms and practices; but also more literally as their sexuality is questioned, Othered, and punished by peers.

5. A later comment in the observation notes record: ‘The teacher later says to me “all the boys want to do gun crimes and all the girls want to do eating disorders” – this despite Jamie being the driving force behind the group choosing obesity as a topic and Tyra also expressing an interest in doing gun crimes’. A point that emphasises the teachers’ role in classroom gender (re)productions, supporting findings by numerous other researchers in gender and education.

6. Hence high‐achieving popular pupils often seemed to gain kudos from their association with more disruptive (and less high‐achieving) friends, without being subject to the penalties incurred by these friends. We posit the (gendered) metaphor of the ‘fall guy’ not as simply applying to boys, as the phenomenon was observed among girls too. However, the metaphor retains a masculinist resonance in our application here in reference to the ways in which ‘others’ are used as capital for sustaining popularity.

7. The notion of heteroglossia and monoglossia can also account for the varying ways in which gender is discursively constituted throughout multiple sites, including within the different facets and relationships involved in the research project, and indeed in readings of the data.