Slappers who gouge your eyes: vocal performance as exemplification of disturbing inertia in gender equality

Abstract

This article is based upon a full‐time study of masculinity and singing funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Empirical work was conducted with boy performers and ‘peer audiences’ for those performers in schools. The article focuses on girls’ attitudes to boy singers and reveals a significant difference between primary and secondary schooling. In primary schools, girls are the more responsible for discouraging boys but in secondary schools the male peer group becomes more critical whilst girls increasingly perceive boy singers as ‘cute’. It is possible to construct a strong case for single‐sex groupings but the empirical work suggests this may turn out to be misguided. The article concludes that there is an urgent need for girls and boys to learn mutual respect in the context of the music class. The evidence suggests that teachers require a significantly enhanced level of gender‐related subject knowledge, gender awareness and interpersonal skill.

Keywords:

• boys
• singing
• homophobia
• single‐sex schooling
• patriarchy
• masculinity