#fag discourse

[jjcunygender]

"Fag" is not necessarily a static identity attached to a particular (homosexual) boy. Fag talk and fag imitations serve as a discourse with which boys discipline themselves and each other through joking relationships. Any boy can temporarily become a fag in a given social space or interaction. This does not mean that those boys who identify as or are perceived to be homosexual are not subject to intense harassment. But becoming a fag has as much to do with failing at the masculine tasks of competence, heterosexual prowess and strength or in any way revealing weakness or femininity, as it does with a sexual identity. This fluidity of the fag identity is what makes the specter of the fag such a powerful disciplinary mechanism. It is fluid enough that boys police most of their behaviors out of fear of having the fag identity permanently adhere and definitive enough so that boys recognize a fag behavior and strive to avoid it.

Judith Pascoe, ‘Dude, You’re a Fag”

[masculinityinmedia-blog]

In the book that C. J. Pascoe wrote, Dude, You’re a Fag, Pascoe immersed herself in a California high school to study the fag discourse that the students used.  In her study, Pascoe learned that the word fag was not used in the context a lot as an insult towards gay people.  She found, instead, that the word fag was most used amongst high school boys to call each other unmasculine and lower than human.  Fag was the word used to hurt other boys with the worst insult that there was.  Because of the huge threat of being called a fag, the high school boys acted within the extremely strict roles of society defined masculinity.  Not only is the restricting and conforming, but the fag discourse is also hurtful to the gay community as well as women.  This is because calling someone a fag means that you are unmasculine, which means you’re acting “feminine.”  The fag discourse is systematically oppressive and hurtful, and in the end the word fag is damaging to everyone.

http://www.nme.com/news/eminem/73630 

The article above talks about Eminem and his use of the word fag.  Like the boys in Dude, You’re a Fag Eminem uses the word to dehumanize his enemies.  However, like in the book, this fag discourse is hurtful and damaging in the same way, and maybe even more because he’s famous and has tremendous influence over a large audience.

[thebexyest]

Of course, to not care about one’s clothes, or to make fun of those who care about their clothes, ironically, is to also care about one’s appearance. In this sense, masculinity became the carefully crafted appearance of not caring about appearance.

C.J. Pascoe author of Dude, You’re a Fag