Sexualities and Social Justice: Young People and the Doing of Gender and Sexual Equalities in a Former Ship‐Building Community

Abstract

This participatory youth ethnography—utilising interviews, focus‐groups, observational diaries, and artwork—explores young people’s differing attitudes to current sexual equalities in a former ship‐building community in Northern England. Adapting Raymond Williams’ cultural Marxist framework on class, it identifies three intersecting repertoires of transition: a dominant liberal disposition of “inclusive sexualities”, based on the universal rights of the individual; a residual repertoire that recuperates masculinist tropes of patriarchy and “hardness”, associated with the passing industrial era; and an emergent paradigm that seeks to “trouble” and destabilise gender categories. We argue that place, locality, and labour market geographies critically impact upon the types of gender and sexual identities deemed “appropriate”, situating possibilities for enacting social justice through equality legislation. The participatory ethnography critically examines the spatial circulation, accumulation, and dissipation of gender and sexual equalities in young lives, identifying possibilities and challenges for future transformation.

Decolonizing Care: Hegemonic Masculinity, Caring Masculinities, and the Material Configurations of Care

“…Ruby and Scholz (2018 79) remark how Elliot’s conception of caring masculinities is focused on men, yet there is pressing need to engage boys and younger generations (c.f. Bonner-Thompson and Nayak 2022; Nayak and Bonner-Thompson 2022). Indeed, there is evidence that a “practice-based model” (Elliott 2016) of care is beating a path towards mainstream school pedagogy, illustrated in the latest Department for Education (DfE) guidance for Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) in England and Wales (Nayak and Bonner-Thompson 2022).…”

“…Bonner-Thompson and Nayak 2022; Nayak and Bonner-Thompson 2022). Indeed, there is evidence that a “practice-based model” (Elliott 2016) of care is beating a path towards mainstream school pedagogy, illustrated in the latest Department for Education (DfE) guidance for Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) in England and Wales (Nayak and Bonner-Thompson 2022). The guidance, updated since the pandemic, places a pronounced emphasis upon practicing care.…”

Spaces of change: Everyday gender activism through near‐peer gender and sexuality workshops with young people in the UK

“…Through a school‐based project with five classes, they have explored how awareness of and appreciation for caring masculinities might be cultivated through arts‐based activity in which young people create artwork about their visions of different kinds of male caring (Bonner‐Thompson & Nayak, 2021). This research has also explored pupils' views about masculinity, gender identity and sexual orientation, finding views that ranged from rights‐based ‘we're all the same’ narratives that flattened difference; to attempts to queer or discard binary gender difference all together; as well as echos or long shadows of ‘traditional’ understandings of working‐class masculinity based in physical and emotional ‘hardness’ (Nayak & Bonner‐Thompson, 2022). This body of work has produced a nuanced and conceptually rich framework through which to consider school space as a domain in which to challenge hetero‐patriarchal norms and practices.…”