This paper explores promiscuous black feminism by juxtaposing black feminism, Foucualt's poststructuralism, and my grandmother. The tensions created by these juxtapositions illuminate the ways black feminism and poststructuralism are resources and challenges to each other, and how both offer understandings of the relations at play that shape…

Popular discourses on the problem of sexualisation are beset by emotively charged rhetoric that all-too-often promotes a visceral and affective response as opposed to reasoned and nuanced examination. Drawing on materials from the Social Purity Movement (1860-1910) as well as contemporary anti-sexualisation literature, this article argues that a…

Stubborn societal prejudices persist that inhibit this enlargement of gender roles for boys and men. Portrayals of men in popular culture tend to be brutish, ignorant, and violent--often in sexual and predatory ways. Boys in school are subjected to homophobia, racism, classism, and shame, as a means of policing their burgeoning identities and…

This article offers a reading of the 2006 film "The History Boys", which depicts eight male working-class grammar school students preparing for exams to enter Oxford and Cambridge and two teachers who prepare them. I read the film's subjunctive mood, which gestures to possibility and an "otherwise", as connected to an analytic…

This dissertation responds to the question: How is sexuality organized in elementary schools? I argue that despite the absence of overt discussions on sexuality in elementary schools, sexuality is "organized" through social processes that are recursively linked to ideology. Due to the widely held belief that "children" and…

Focused on comparative ethnic studies and intersectionality, the author commences with a discussion about Barack Obama's historic inauguration and the Asian American literature classroom. This essay argues that courses, programs, and departments focused on ethnicity, race, gender, class, and sexuality remain important precisely because they…

Although male rape is being reported more often than before, the majority of rape victims continue to be women. Rape myths--false beliefs used mainly to shift the blame of rape from perpetrators to victims--are also prevalent in today's society and in many ways contribute toward the pervasiveness of rape. Despite this, there has been limited…

This article reviews the literature on the roles that schools, peers, and parents play in young people's sexuality education. We argue that the sexuality education children receive is far from just the facts; rather, it is an education in the maintenance of inequality. Sexuality education, as it is currently conceived, includes implicit and…

Drawing on recent ethnographic research in one single-sex, private primary school, this paper will explore what it meant for the girls in this setting to embody the discourse of the "lady". The paper will propose that classed and gendered discourses of respectability featured strongly in the girls' lives, as they were expected to behave…

Focussing on narratives collected during a two year participant observation research project in the children's services department of an urban local authority, this article addresses the intersection between incidents of permanent exclusion from school and assumptions made on the basis of a young person's gender. The article considers gendered…

Hegemonic discourses authorise certain ways of being, knowing, and doing. We internalise or appropriate images, patterns, and words from the social activities in which we have participated. Race, gender, sexuality, age, education, class are among aspects of identity (social constructions) that affect our language and literacy acquisition, the way…

There has been increased critical interest in the child as a rich and varied site of cultural inscription. Scholars from a wide range of disciplines have turned their attention to the child in order to interrogate how it comes to represent, and often codify, the prevailing ideologies of a given culture or historical period. Noting that narratives…

The complexity of pluralism in this country makes it difficult for the educator to develop expectations of students based on their group memberships. This text examines these group memberships and ways educators can develop educational programs to meet the needs of those groups and the nation. The book provides an overview of the different…