Dude You're a Fag: adolescent masculinity and the fag discourse
Pascoe’s “Dude, you’re a fag: adolescent masculinity and the fag discourse” is about the idea of the term fag being used in relation to masculinity. A guy can be called a fag merely for showing a more feminine side, not actually because they are homosexual. If a boy shows weakness in trying to complete a task society deems as masculine they are for that moment considered a fag. That term however does not stick with that person forever, just for that moment.
Pascoe found the term fag as an insult to not just being homophobic but also gender phobic. Her field work at Riverside high school concluded that in their town, for a guy, being called a fag was the worst insult, it degraded them to nothing. While the boys use this term regularly the females do not use this term with each other. Being called a lesbian is not an insulting term. Also the boys see nothing wrong in being a lesbian, they felt that was okay. The boys in this high school felt that being a fag is the worst thing to be.
Pascoe also found in this high school that while fag is one of the harshest insults, the term gay was used in a lesser insulting way. Girls and boys used the term gay and to describe inanimate objects and sometimes each other. When they use gay it meant stupid, where as fag was meant to be much harsher.
Pascoe learned from these students that being called a fag has nothing to do with being homosexual at all. It is just used as a way to insult other guys. They called others fags for doing things that are not masculine but not necessarily feminine either, for example being stupid, dancing, being too emotion, and so on. Pascoe also learned that they don’t see homosexual people as fags; someone can be gay and masculine. A fag is someone who is un-masculine, not necessarily gay.