Femininity and Masculinity

Femininity and Masculinity

1. Mac an Ghaill (1994)

   • Studied how boys learn to be men in their peer groups at school, policing their own and others' sexuality.
     • Gender power, based on 'hyper-masculinity' was the main source of identity for the 'macho lads'.
       • Mac an Ghaill valued the '3 fs' - 'fighting, football and f******'.

2. Jackson (2006)

   • Found that some girls, or 'ladettes', also spent time drinking and smoking, swearing and disrupting lessons, for fear of doing otherwise ad bein considered unpopular and 'uncool'

3. Denscombe (2001)

   • Looked at the increase in female risk-taking behaviour, particularly smoking as being related to a 'ladette' culture, where young women want to be seen as anything but the stereotype of a woman.

4. Robert Connell (1995)

   • Argued that that there a range of masculine identities available today, but that hegemonic masculinity is the most common and the one that is still reinforced most strongly
     • Other forms of masculinity he identifies, subordinate masculinity, which is linked to homosexual males, and marginalised masculinity, which he links to unemployed men, are present but not fully accepted as 'real' masculinity'.

5. Mac an Ghaill (1994) 'The crisis of masculinity'

   • Used this term to refer to the insecurity felt by working-class me today. There has been a loss of the 'breadwinner' identity with the decline of traditional male industries.