This article reports on research into the experience of gay teenagers in school. Interviews with gay students examined the heterosexisdhomophobia of the current educational regime in schools. As an institutional ethnography, the article explores that regime from the standpoint of the informants. It does not study the informants themselves.The ideology of "fag" is key to the organization of the heterosexistlhomophobic dimensions of the school regime. It is a practice in language. Mikhail Bakhtin's work is used to devise ways of "seeing" social organization in the speech and graffiti in which the ideology of "fag" is realized in schools. His conception of the dialogic explicates the relationship between researcher and informants, as well as the dialogues internal to informants' narratives. Excerpts from their stories create windows into the local practices of the ideology of "fag" as they experienced it and made available the social organization of their everyday school lives. Analysis focuses on how speech, whether as verbal abuse or homophobic graffiti, concerts antigay activities, articulating to the wider organization of gender and the school as a regime.Informants' stories describe how "fag" as a stigmatized object is constituted in "gossip." Aspects of youths' appearance are interpreted with reference to "fag" as an underlying pattern. Everyday practices of "fag-baiting", such as poking fun, teasing, name calling, scrawling graffiti on lockers, insulting and harassing someone, produce the "fag" as a social object. The language intends a course of action isolating the gay student and inciting to physical violence. Verbal abuse both is and initiates attack. As a form of public speech, graffiti constitute a depersonalized form of threat and harassment. Whether a gay student is identified as ''fag" or not, he acquires a gay identity/ consciousness through the practices of the ideology of "fag."What the article describes is a normal part of school organization. The social relations of heterosexuality and patriarchy dominate its public space. Being gay is never spoken of positively (in these informants' experience). Teachers are reported as being generally complicit by their silence if not actively participating in the ideology. Attacks on and ostracism of gay students are taken for granted. The heterosexism of the regime makes "fag" the stigmatized other and, reflexively, "fag" as stigmatized other feeds into the regime's heterosexism. Thus, the gay students' stories show the school's complicity in the everyday cruelties of the enforcement of heterosexisthomophobic hegemony.Gay and lesbian youth attend schools throughout the nation . . . . These students-from every ethnic and racial background, in urban, suburban, and rural schools-have sat
What follows is a transcribed conversation between the authors. It has been edited for length and clarity. iStock Haley Bryant: When we began this discussion it took the form of a conference panel designed to work through some of the challenges associated with bridging the gap between ethnography and activism. There is a unique element of scale and time to doing ethnography of a social justice movement or issue at a moment when the threat of violence or war is very present and very immediate-locally or globally. We wondered if this shifts the discussion around what social scientists can do for activist causes, as ethnography is a time-based practice. In order to be true to
This study investigates suicide from the vantage point of the suicidal person by analyzing the personal meaning(s) of the act for the individual. Twenty-seven suicidal persons and survivors contributed to the research. Their individual recollections are studied and ordered within the framework of Jean Baechler's approach (as presented in his book Suicides). The study indicates that there is, in each case, an identifiable purpose or a pattern of purposes that can be categorized within a restricted and meaningful system, which may help the observer understand what human beings are doing when they want to end their lives.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.