Boys Gender and Schooling > Issues for schools > Lifting literacies >

Masculinity vs literacy

Popular concepts of masculinity and femininity are set up as opposites. The emphasis is on difference. In their interviews with boys in schools, Gilbert and Gilbert (1998:143) find that these gender 'oppositions' line up to define narrow roles for girls and boys:

Girls
Passive
Isolated
Bookish
Reading
Feminine

Boys
Active
Popular
Sporting
Playing
Masculine

This is limiting to both genders, but has particular consequences for the literacy development of some groups of boys. If masculinity means being tough and competitive, it may sit uncomfortably with working and cooperating at school.

To be seen to commit to schoolwork for its own sake would be seen by a number of these groups as acquiescing to school authority, as taking on the values of the school, as going over to the other side. For most of them it would also risk being seen as effeminate.

(Gilbert and Gilbert (1998:143)

The oppositional nature of these gender roles leaves many boys (and girls) with very little room to move if they wish to stay within acceptable limits and avoid gender-based harassment. Acceptance is very important to children and young adolescents negotiating their identities within peer groups. To stay 'safe' they often comply with, and even join in on the policing of, gender boundaries.

What one boy says about 'gender boundaries' and school work.

The challenge for schools is to confront this opposition [of gender roles] by using it against itself. By breaking down this pattern, the oppositions can be deconstructed, and a more open set of possibilities created.

(Gilbert and Gilbert (1998:143))

In all classrooms, we can assist students to question narrow ideas of what it means to be masculine, and to broaden them to include reading and other literacy skills. In the literacy classroom, in particular, we can try to identify clashes between our common practice and some ideas of masculinity. Engaging students in this process can help them to understand how gender construction works and can impact on their learning. See Getting to grips with gender for more on examining gender construction.

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