Strategic Embodiment in Virtual Spaces: Exploring an on-line discussion about sexualities equality in schools

Abstract

This paper analyses patterns of participation on a voluntary anonymous Web-based discussion forum, open to students and faculty in one UK university, concerning sexualities equality in schools. Analysis revealed that participants often rejected the security of anonymity and strategically embodied themselves and others (as gay, straight, parents, etc.) to provide authority and ethical grounding for certain arguments. These embodied arguments invited engagement and promoted dialogue. We found that while personal embodiments were crucial for meaningful interaction, they also brought the risk of personalizing systematic inequality and fostering a victimization discourse. In the light of this, we argue that both individual and collective perspectives are crucial for promoting sexualities equality in school.

Acknowledgements

The research described in this paper was carried out in the UK, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, UK (Ref. SGS/00853/G).

Notes

1. As defined by poster pseudonyms. This does not necessarily imply 38 different people (see below).

2. “Alter Ego” was on display at the Proud Gallery in London, October 8–18, 2004, and photos of both the person and their virtually created “avatar” can be viewed at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3683260.stm (retrieved February 20, 2007).

3. Although we both work for the same university, one of us lives in England and the other in Spain.

4. Since Internet discussions are not generally expected to adhere to formal writing conventions, postings are occasionally edited here for spelling and grammatical errors. Out of respect for posters, we adjust their prose to academic norms.

5. This seems to be a reference to Section 28 of the 1988 Local Government Act, which stated that a local authority shall not “promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”. It was repealed in England in 2003.

6. A note on pronoun use: when posters have identified as either male or female in their postings, we use the corresponding pronouns. Otherwise we have avoided pronoun use. We are aware that this may essentialize identities, but it also respects the posters’ own constructions.

7. Rilth's posting cited here was the only example where a poster identified as gay or lesbian while arguing against any explicit discussion of sexuality in schools, and this was a specific argument limited to teachers revealing their own sexual orientation. In his responses to other prompts, he supported discussing sexual orientation in the classroom more generally.