Uses data from an ethnographic exploration into children's gender and sexual identities during sixth grade to examine how dominant notions of heterosexuality underscore much of children's identity work and peer relationships, illustrating how boys and girls are subject to pressures of compulsory heterosexuality. Discusses the implications of…

Describes a study investigating two young, working class, African American men's differing meanings of diplomas, relationships with teachers, and relationships with male peers in the production of their racial, masculine identities. Data from interviews with the students indicate that though they were from similar social locations, they developed…

This paper explores the effect of cross gender relations on the construction of boys' masculine identities. The findings are based on data gathered from a year long empirical study of 10 to 11-year-old boys set in three UK junior schools. Although masculinity is defined against femininity and boys needed to mark out a set of distinctions from…

Studies of physical education teacher training have already established that hegemonic forms of masculinity are reinforced and reproduced both in the hidden curriculum (Flintoff, 1997) and the informal student culture (Skelton, 1993). Given this, an important feminist concern is whether male PE teachers whose own masculine identities are anchored…

Innovative programs in male spirituality can help college men challenge conventional masculine gender roles and envision creative ways of being men.

This paper explores recent Ontario policy directives aimed at improving literacy levels among boys in addition to the perspectives underlying these policies. By drawing on the school experiences of four high school young men, the authors examine how boys read and misread masculinities through socially literate practices. This paper argues that…

This article derives from a research project investigating the singing behaviour of a group of Australian boys in their first year of school. The project showed that the genesis of the "missing male" trend in singing at school may be occurring in early childhood. The impact of hegemonic masculinity in early childhood is explored here by…

There still remains in our social institutions and individual lives a considerable splitting between feminine and masculine gender distinctions. The present study determined the dimensionality of the space of 53 admirable personality traits hypothesized to relate to femininity-masculinity and creativity, and assessed preferences of females versus…

Presents findings about sex roles in 171 male and 180 female university students in Ireland who were examined by the Bem Sex Role Inventory, and discusses the validity of this test. The distribution of subjects on sex-role types showed a larger percentage of androgynous males and undifferentiated females in the Irish sample than in American…

Examines the development of feminine and masculine patterns of sexual identity in boyhood and the relation between these patterns and later sexual orientation. (Author/RWB)

This study examines the factor structure of response to the masculinity-femininity (MF) scale of the Comrey Personality Scales for males and females. The use of confirmatory factor analysis for testing hierarchical factor structures and factorial invariance is illustrated. The findings argue that MF is a multifaceted, hierarchical construct.…

This book explores where masculinity is in primary schools. It has been argued by some commentators that a contributory factor to boys' underachievement is the predominance of women teachers in primary schools which has led to classroom management and teaching styles that favor girls. As this book shows, primary schools produce a range of…

Examines issues associated with boys and literacy based on Australian research documenting gender differences in literacy performance. Argues that literacy, as it is constructed in school, becomes a domain of knowledge and a set of technologies that run counter to various dominant constructions of masculinity. A corrective approach is offered that…

Examines gender stereotyping and the use of alcohol. Analyzes responses of 70 female and 46 male college students to a social stereotyping study derived from the Bem Social Roles ventory. Finds that expectations regarding beer drinking and getting drunk are aspects of traditional male gender role. (FMW)

Examines whether feminine or masculine gender role behavior is associated with lower academic achievement in general as well as in mathematics and whether these relationships increase with age in a sample of 333 boys aged 6 to 10 years. Variations are only marginally correlated with school achievement. (SLD)