Complicating hetero-normative spaces at school formals in New Zealand

Abstract

The school formal in New Zealand constitutes a rich site of analysis for researchers interested in gender and sexuality performances. As a social space, the formal both shapes bodies and is shaped by them. In this article, we explore the school formals of three different types of schools: a single sex girls’, a single sex boys’ and a co-ed. high school, all from an urban centre. Using the theoretical tools provided by poststructuralism and queer theory, we conducted a discourse analysis of observations conducted by the first author at two school formals, interviews with staff and students and interviews with peer researchers. We demonstrate how same-sex practices do not necessarily map onto queer bodies, masculinity onto ‘male’ bodies or femininity onto ‘female’ bodies. Such fluidity challenges the rigid heterosexual/homosexual and masculine/feminine binaries so that schools are more inclusive of gender and sexual diversity.

Complicar los espacios heteronormativos en las fiestas formales de graduación escolar en Nueva Zelanda

La fiesta formal de graduación en Nueva Zelanda constituye un sitio rico de análisis para lxs investigadorxs interesadxs en las performances de género y sexualidad. Como espacio social, la fiesta formal tanto da forma a los cuerpos como es moldeada por ellos. En este artículo exploramos las fiestas formales de graduación escolar de tres tipos de escuelas: una de niñas solamente, una de varones solamente y una secundaria mixta, todas en un centro urbano. Utilizando las herramientas teóricas que brindan el postestructuralismo y la teoría queer, realizamos un análisis de discurso de observaciones llevadas a cabo por la primera autora en dos fiestas de graduación escolar, entrevistas con personal y estudiantes, y entrevistas con otrxs investigadorxs. Demostramos cómo las prácticas del mismo sexo no necesariamente se mapean en los cuerpos queer, la masculinidad en los cuerpos “masculinos” o la feminidad en los cuerpos “femeninos”. Esta fluidez desafía la rigidez de los binarios heterosexual/homosexual y masculino/femenino de manera que las escuelas son más inclusivas de la diversidad de género y sexual.

复杂化新西兰学校正式社交活动的异性恋常规空间

对于有兴趣研究性别与性展演的学者而言，新西兰的学校正式社交活动，构成了一个丰富的分析场域。正式社交活动作为一个社会空间，形塑了身体、并同时被身体所形塑。我们在本文中，探讨三种不同类型的学校举办的正式社交活动：仅有女生、仅有男生，以及男女溷合的高中，这三所学校皆位于市中心。我们运用后结构主义与酷儿理论所提供的理论工具，对于第一作者在两所学校的正式社交活动中进行的观察，以及对教职员与学生的访问，和对同侪研究者所进行的访谈，进行论述分析。我们证明，同性实践如何不必然映射于酷儿的身体，男性气概不必然映射于“男性”身体，或女性气质不必然映射于“女性”身体。此般流动性，挑战了僵固的异性恋／同性恋和男性气概／女性气质的分野，学校因而对性别与性的多样化更具有包容性。

Keywords:

• heteronormative hegemony
• gender
• school formal
• sexuality

Palabras claves:

• hegemonía heteronormativa
• género
• fiesta formal de graduación escolar
• sexualidad

关键词::

• 异性恋常规霸权
• 性别
• 学校正式社交活动
• 性

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the three schools that agreed to participate in the project as well as the student volunteers. We would also like to thank the three anonymous reviewers, whose comments have fostered the productive reworking of the article, strengthening the final version.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

^1. Email: [email protected]

^2. Email: [email protected]

^3. Heteronormativity refers to the societal construction of heterosexuality as the ‘normal’ and therefore unquestioned or default sexuality (Blaise and Taylor 2012; Gunn and Smith in press; Warner 1993). Heteronormativity is embedded in every institution in the western world (Warner 1993), including New Zealand schools (Quinlivan and Town 1999; Gunn and Smith in press).

^4. Here we are using the term queer as a collective term for those who choose to perform their sexualities and genders in non-normative ways, including gays, lesbians, bisexuals, pansexuals and transgendered people. Schools have a long history of excluding queer students from the school formal and therefore we need an umbrella term for those who are excluded (McCullough, 2009; Smith, 2006; 2012). We use the term queer not to specify an essential sexual/gendered subject, but because of the sexual and gender fluidity it infers (see Butler 1999).

^6. Due to the need to protect the identity of the young people in the photograph, this image has been heavily disguised using the computer application Photoshop, which unfortunately makes the image appear two dimensional. The hands of the young men on the left and right sides of the image are in front of the young woman.

^5. See Goodwin, Lyons and Stephens (2014) for discussion of how the discourses deployed in the media during the debates on the Civil Union Act ultimately ‘allow for the persistence of heterosexism’ (p. 829), despite the apparent advancement towards equality.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lee Smith

Dr Lee Smith is an assistant research fellow at the University of Otago College of Education. In 2012, she completed her Ph.D. titled Gender and the School Formal, on which this article is based. She is currently co-editing a book titled Sexual cultures in Aotearoa/New Zealand education, which is due for publication in mid-2015. Her primary research interests include gender, sexuality and youth research.

Karen Nairn

Associate Professor Karen Nairn is based at the University of Otago College of Education. Her recent book Children of Rogernomics. A Neoliberal Generation Leaves School is based on research with young people born since the introduction of New Zealand's neoliberal reforms. The book is about the identity work of 93 young people as they made the transition from high school into their post-school lives, amidst neoliberal imperatives to gain tertiary qualifications, and economic independence.

Susan Sandretto

Dr Susan Sandretto is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Otago College of Education. Her primary research focuses on expanding conceptualisations of literacy. Her book, Planting seeds: Embedding critical literacy into your classroom programme (NZCER Press) is based on New Zealand research into critical literacy. Her research interests include gender issues in education, practitioner research and critical multiliteracies.