Dude You Re A Fag Analysis

About four paragraphs down he also says “ I don’t hate cheerleading just because it’s about as safe as porcupine juggling. I also hate it because it’s dumb.” This is not something that I would have expected to see in an article that was written by somebody. He is telling us his own opinion. It has nothing to do with his central claim that he is making. The fact that he said, “it’s dumb”, just sounds silly in his article and probably throws off the audience from the claim that he is really trying to make. I also think it’s interesting that he asks the audience “Exactly what does a girl get out of cheerleading, anyway, besides a circle skirt and a tight sweater? Why do we encourage girls to cheer the boys, to idolize the boys? This question that he asks really can be targeted in a couple different ways. First of all, cheerleading is a very tough sport with all the flexibility that you need to have. A cheerleader must be able to do flips, and all other kinds of stunts. Secondly, he says, “why do we encourage girls to cheer the boys?” this statement is very stereotypical because there are male cheerleaders out there too. Especially today it seems to be more and more common and I don’t think we really see it as a big deal to notice a male cheerleader. If you go to a lot of colleges and universities, you will notice that one of the core parts of a cheerleading squad is the male cheerleader. It is not uncommon what so ever. So, for Reilly to make

Pascoe argues while certain behaviors put all boys at risk for becoming a fag, some behaviors can be enacted by African-American boys without putting them at risk for or having that label. Its not that this gendered homophobia does not exist in the African-American community, there is a varied system of sexualized meanings among different radicalized ethnic groups. The difference between white boys and African American boys meaning of fag differs around clothing and dancing, which is the

Society faces an issue that is not usually addressed because it is seen as the norm in today’s American culture. It is the crisis of masculinity. The notion of how men should be portrayed is not usually identified as a problem; today’s society views men’s apathetic and exasperated exterior as the orthodox behavior of everyday life. Boys at a young age are taught by the popular culture that they need to be a “real man” - strong physically and emotionally. The mask many men put up is based on the extreme idea of masculinity that emphasizes toughness, physical strength and gaining the respect of others through violence or the explicit threat of it. This front is put up by men because they do not want to stray from what is accepted, for men who

Pascoe discusses how masculinity can function as a regulatory mechanism of gender in American adolescent boys. It has been found that the word ‘fag’ is not necessarily directed at a homosexual boy, but has taken on a new meaning in school age boys. It is being used as a disciplinary mechanism to police certain behaviors “out of fear of having the fag identity permanently” (Pascoe p.330). This kind of teasing and harassment can temporarily be place on any boy who shows signs of weakness or femininity. The high schoolers in the study told Pascoe that calling someone a fag was like telling them they were nothing or stupid (Pascoe p. 335). Boys could be called a fag for anything that he did that was opposite of masculine, even when it had nothing to do with his sexual preference. The fag discourse seemed to be just another way for the contest of masculinity to take

Male cheerleaders continuously get gender stigma which means a negative trait or set of traits attached to a social group, due to cheerleading being labeled as a 'feminine sport'. There are some male who become hesitant when wanting to be a cheerleader due to them being labeled as ‘Gay’. One of the female who participated in the study said “cheerleading started with men. I think the media has turned it into a sexualized female sport”. But, they believed this occur because women are helping men protect and maintain their masculine guise. However, the construction of masculinity is achieved through sexual objectification by men who cheer, because society focuses on labeling male cheerleaders homosexual, when in reality they have the advantage

Many people have written articles about their experience with athletics, especially with high school and college-level athletics. Because athletics are so often intertwined with these formative moments in one’s life, as well as with normative ideals of masculinity, they are ideal contexts in which to write about gender identity. Thomas Rogers’ essay “The College Hazing that Changed My Life,” originally published on Salon.com in 2011, and Joe Mackall’s essay “Words of my Youth” both deal with athletics as a way into discussing gender identity. Although the essays are very different, they both deal with a very similar theme: how difficult it is to develop a masculine identity, particularly within a sporting context, in a world that is increasingly accepting of different gender identities.

Martha Irvine, a graduate of the University of Michigan published an article titled Queer Evolution which talked about how the word “Queer” itself has evolved into the mainstream. Originally the word’s definition was to describe something as odd or weird. Society utilized the word “Queer” as an insult to the LGBTQ community. As more sexual orientations are being discovered, “Queer” became a more accepted word in the gay community in order to make things simpler. Irvine’s essay showed that whatever word we use, can affect a person depending on the intention, and the tone of how it’s being said. Irvine’s essay is very similar to Deborah Tannen’s essay You’re Wearing That which talks about the relationship between mother and daughter and how words have established expectations for women based on their appearance and behavior. Another essay that well connects with Tannen and Irvine’s articles is a section from a book written by Michael Kimmel titled Bros Before Hos’’: The Guy Code. Kimmel talks about “The Guy Code”, rules that a man should always follow in order to be considered a real man. Words are the reason why these standards have been established for all genders and sexualities. The relationships between parents and children would be better if words were replaced, which would abolish the expectations that society has for men and women.

So if one guy called another guy a “fag” it is not necessarily to say that he is literally gay; it’s a charge that he is not being “a real man”. In essence the word “fag” is not only a homophobic slur, it is a homophobic slur that also attacks behavior as not being masculine. This is why Pascoe used the phrase gendered homophobia throughout the book to describe the masculinity the male students showed on a daily basis.

In Pascoe’s analysis of the word fag she interviews many boys at River High and most of them had the same response, that a boy could be called fag for exhibiting any sort of behavior defined as unmasculine such as being stupid or incompetent, to caring too much about something, or being too emotional(57). With this I analyzed the situation I always got stuck in and constantly was under fire for the word fag. At River High having a girlfriend “both protected boys from the specter of the fag and bolstered their masculinity” in certain cases (90). At El Capitan I was the guy who always had a girlfriend but I never dated girls from the same school. Even though I was adored by other girls at the school for expressing my love interest to this other girl. The guys constantly threw the word fag at me for being emotionally attached to a girl. So I was intrigued and happy to hear that in Pascoe’s one on one interviews the guys who would be calling me a fag were actually in the same situation as me but just too scared to admit their feelings publicly. All because of the social organization as Weeks explains that the peer influences within the high school put out a

A sport is an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment. Sports originated in early history as males only, and was often used to see which male was more dominant. In today’s society sports have a different meaning and is played by both genders, but still holds a mentality of superiority. In this essay, I will be arguing the Social Constructs of Masculinity in Sports in the language and the actions used when performing these activities through both genders and how some actions are acceptable for one gender and not for the other. Using Laurel Richardson’s article Gender Stereotyping in the English Language, and X: A Fabulous Child’s Story by Lois Gould. The article and story will help distinguish the use of words in our society and how they are incorporated in sport and how the actions of a person that does not fit the social standard faces repercussions for their actions.

When thinking of the word cheerleader one typically imagines a pretty, white, blond girl with pom-poms. No one ever imagines a male identifying person in such a way. If male cheerleaders do exist they are automatically considered a “fag” whether they are homosexual or not. Pascoe defines “fag” as “the opposite of masculine, whether or not the word is deployed with sexualized or non-sexualized meanings:” In our society cheerleading is considered a female sport and men who become cheerleaders automatically lose their masculinity and hence are deemed “fags”. In this essay, I demonstrate that anything that does not assert ones masculinity makes that man a fag regardless of their sexuality.

Over the course of time, sports have come to signify masculinity; athletics such as football and basketball easily having come to deem where one fits in terms of societal norms regarding gendered bodies. One could argue that sports, in a modern context, have come to be synonymous with the idea of athletic and/or muscular bodies, which are those that are not regarded as the bodies of ideologically feminine ones given the intense and high pressure nature. In “Sports and Male Domination: The Female Athlete as Contested Ideological Terrain” written by Michael A. Messner in 1988 sheds light on the idea that traditional images of femininity have come to solidify male privilege through the construction and naturalization of gendered characteristics regarding women such as weakness, fragility and dependency .

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, fabulosity is defined as, “fabulous quality or character”, and to be fabulous, “of an incredible, astonishing, or exaggerated nature”. The term fabulosity has been trademarked by model and entrepreneur, Kimora Lee-Simmons, when she wrote a book titled under the popular term. According to her definition fabulosity is, “…a quality ascribed to that which expresses glamour, style, charisma, power, and heart”. So how does this word relate to the movement of queer theatre? In an article published by The Huffington Post, writer Simon Doonan says, “To be a gay man is to live a life of fearless flamboyance”. One can say that the association of being gay to being fabulous is explained by living a life with

Masculinity and femininity are unescapeable. We are taught how to be masculine or feminine from birth but for men, the highest form of masculinity achievable is hegemonic masculinity. In this essay, I will define hegemonic masculinity, discuss how it perpetuates homophobia by restricting the way men interact with one another and by the use of the word fag, and how it perpetuates gender inequality through the expectations of violence, no emotions, and being breadwinners.

Third, it seems that there is a pattern of gender inversion amongst gay men when socializing that can be related to an international queer culture (Johnsen, 2007). In this case, gender inversion refers to the use of feminine words, such as “she” when referring to a man. The researcher, Ole Ringdal Johnsen, mostly observed and analyzed the interactions he heard and participated in as a gay man in different social settings, such as a gay bar. He considers gender inversion to be a characteristic of gay men’s speech, but this speech event is normally for use within the community, not found in everyday conversations, like at the office. In addition, he explains how purposeful gender inversion can convey complex meanings. For example, the word “girl/girlfriend” can be used to express solidarity and friendship amongst the gay men; with this example, Johnsen notes that even very masculine gay men use these feminine identifying words without issue or offense. Other terms usually for women, such as “queens” are also very common when describing a set of personality traits or embellishing a story. Johnsen goes on to discuss how admitting and emphasizing femininity is not frowned upon by gay men, even the more masculine ones, because it is part of the socialization in the queer community.