The Way Men Act: dominant and subordinate male cultures in an inner‐city school

Abstract

Focusing on sex/gender relations in an inner‐urban single‐sex school, the paper examines the cultural position and development of ‘the three friends’, a group stigmatised as ‘poofs’ and subordinated within a youth cultural hierarchy dominated by the school's sporting heroes, especially ‘the footballers’. Power relations within the hierarchy are analysed as effects of intercultural articulations between boys’ friendship and ethnic groups and the institutional power of the school mediated through the cultures of teachers and other staff. Dominant views of appropriate male behaviour trade on essentialist, sexualising interpretations of unorthodox male practices, attributing them to homosexuality. More moderate views, represented by ‘the handballers’, offer family misfortunes as explanations for the ‘problems’ of the three. Teachers’ responses vary from support for the dominant view, through sponsorship of psychological therapy to positive intervention on behalf of the three. The development of a positive and relatively autonomous culture, based on theatrical prowess, illustrates the politics of cultural struggle and suggests strategies for educational intervention in the processes of youth intercultural articulation.

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