Surveys show rates of sexual harassment and misogyny among students are high in U.S. secondary schools--yet most schools fail to deal with this problem. Many educators would like to intervene when they hear students use degrading or sexualized language about girls (or LGBTQ youth) or harass them, but don't know how to do so effectively. The…

In this essay Erica R. Meiners argues that those committed to dismantling our nation's deep and racialized investments in policing and imprisoning must analyze how the flexible category of "the child," and its figurative powers, operate in complex ways to punish communities and naturalize and expand criminalization and surveillance.…

Young people ages 10-24 account for 25 percent of the world's population: a total of 1.8 billion, most of whom are living in low- and middle-income countries. They face significant challenges, including HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), adolescent pregnancy, unsafe abortion, and gender-based violence. Youth have the right to lead…

This commentary focuses on the shortcomings of LGBT-inclusivity by concentrating on the problem of heteronormativity and the promise of intersectionality. The authors do so with a deliberate focus on adolescents and adults engaging in literacy practices, construed broadly, in both in-school and out-of-school contexts.

In the United States, the interplay of racism, sexism, and acculturation creates psychological and social stressors that may affect the development of positive ethnic/sexual identities among Asian and Pacific Islander (API) adolescents. This article proposes a new model of identity formation theory for API gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender…

Media programs like hip-hop music videos are powerful aesthetic agents that inspire teenagers. Thus, they have tremendous influence on young people's identity formation, lifestyle choices, and knowledge construction which are manifested in the ways teens dress, express themselves, behave, and interact with each other. However, because of the…

In this paper, the author explores the connections between hip hop and rap, sexism and homophobia, and children and teens. He describes the implications or potential consequences of sexism and homophobia within the music and media culture of hip hop and rap (with the focus on how it affects young viewers and fans in terms of gender [identity]…

Jon Gilgoff is the Boys Services Manager of the Youth Justice Institute in Oakland, California, and a former Robert Bowne Foundation Fellow who researched Boyz 2 Men through his work with the Educational Alliance in New York City. Boyz 2 Men aimed to provide a positive alternative to drugs as a means of coping with the multiple challenges young…