“’Dude, you’re a fag’:adolescent masculinity and the fag discourse” from Men’s lives”-Pascoe
At the beginning of the article it states it seems that the word fag is used to control adolescents, the way it’s doing this is through the extreme fear of homophobia. And it seems that adolescents are more prone to it,
“They argue that homophobic teasing often characterizes masculinity in adolescence and early adulthood, and that anti-gay slurs tend to primarily be directed at other gay boys.”
However the reason as to why the word fag is to control young males, it’s a way of keeping an eye on each other so that not one of them steps out the hegemonic masculinity standards. This is a way of mental manipulation and they do it to each other. Specifically young males doing it on each other and from the article it seems as if race is also a huge factor it seems like if the child was African- American then certain behaviors they do may put them at the risk or getting this label. However, when it come to a White child it the complete opposite, it seems that they are prone to it.
“‘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.”
Pascoe speaks about Queer Theory, saying that sex and the sexual preferences/ identities of a person isn't just looked as an area of sexual practice but as a element of you social life.
“In this sense queer theory calls for sexuality to be looked at not only as a discrete arena of sexual practices and identities, but also as a constitutive element of social life.”
This reference the fact the word fag is used to control adolescent males, you are basically questioning their masculinity and not making any reference to their actual sexual preference at all. Pascoe says that this isn’t homophobic but gendered homophobic because when you call a girl a fag or a lesbian it ok, there isn't any problem in fact it is considered to be cool. But if a guy is called a fag it automatically taken completely serious. Many of the teens interviewed claim that the lowest thing a girl can be called is a slut.
