Peer regulation of teenage sexual identities

Heterosexism, Perfection, and Popularity: Young Lesbians' Experiences of the High School Social Scene

“…The performance of proper femininity also includes the "doing of relationships," and girls are coached through the media and teen-focused magazines on relationships with boys/men (Chambers et al 2004, 406;Durham 2002). Chambers et al (2004) noted that the central feature in the "performance of teenage femininity" is engaging in the work required to attract, develop, and maintain a relationship with a boy (406). Through heterosexual interaction, desirability and worth are measured with respect to "gender differentiation" (Eckert 1997, 2).…”

“…Although popularity cannot be separated from heterosexuality, it also cannot be separated from a feminine gender performance. Young women are bombarded with the guidelines for that gender performance through the media and widely read teen and women's magazines, such as YM, Seventeen, and Cosmopolitan (Chambers et al 2004, Durham 2002, Payne 2002. Girls use cultural resources such as fashion magazines and television programs to help them understand and conform to the social norms of heterosexuality through their construction and performance of femininity (Durham 2002).…”

The Call To Critique ‘Common Sense’ Understandings about Boys and Masculinity(ies)

“…Furthermore, this practice is an example of the punishment inflicted upon those who deviate from heterosexual norms and disrupt the heterosexual imperative. It is the case that, within the highly sexualised sites of the school and the classroom, these practices -in their various guiseshave material consequences for both the boys and girls upon whom they are enacted (see Chambers, van Loon & Ticknell, 2004;Eliasson, Isaksson & Laflamme, 2007;Martino, 1995cMartino, , 2000aMartino, , 2000bMartino, , 2000cMesserschmidt, 2000aMesserschmidt, , 2000bMeyer, 2006Meyer, , 2008Mills, 2001).…”

‘They're just not mature right now’: teachers' complicated perceptions of gender and anti-queer bullying

“…Sexuality has been used by students, teachers and administrators as a normalising discourse to regulate the social behaviours of youth (Chambers, Tincknell, and Van Loon 2004;Epstein, O'Flynn, and Telford 2003;Froyum 2007;Martino 2000aMartino , 2000bRenold 2000Renold , 2003Woody 2003). Young people use homophobic and heterosexist discourses to police gender and sexual identities (Chambers, Tincknell, and Van Loon 2004;Froyum 2007;Martino 2000aMartino , 2000bWoody 2003). Demonstrating that the conflation of the two identities happens quite often in adolescence, young people tend to use homophobic discourses against peers who defy gender norms as well as, if not more so than, peers who defy sexual identity norms (Froyum 2007;Horn 2007;Woody 2003).…”

“…Young people may utilise explicit verbal, sexual and physical bullying in order to police gender and sexual identity among peers (Chambers, Tincknell, and Van Loon 2004), and rely on hegemonic discourses to regulate their peers' expressions of gender and sexual identities. Adolescents use homophobic discourses, identifying peers as gay or lesbian, in order to control both sexual and gender identity performances through insults and abuse (Froyum 2007;Martino 2000aMartino , 2000bWoody 2003).…”