Impacts of Inclusion & Exclusion from a Community

This tab explores how inclusion and exclusion from a community can impact an individual. Below are different scenarios that depict the ways in which societal inclusion/exclusion can affect the behaviors of an individual: what measures will one take to be included into a societal group? What exactly does social exclusion entail for these individuals?

‘Dude, You’re a F*g:’ Adolescent Masculinity and the F*g Discourse

In this journal, sociologist CJ Pascoe studies adolescents in high school in order to analyze masculinity, and specifically how teenage boys perceive and display masculinity. Pascoe critiques the slur “f*g” and how this slur is a contributor to “gendered homophobia,” a term Pascoe coins to describe how teenage boys react to those who do not ‘correctly’ display masculinity; this was a way the teen boys policed their sexualities in order to maintain a social hierarchy of masculinity.

“But becoming a fag has as much to do with failing at the masculine tasks of competence, heterosexual prowess and strength or an anyway revealing weakness or femininity, as it does with a sexual identity” (Pascoe 330).

One boy in the journal commented on how he would never direct the slur at actual gay men, however he would still use it to insult his friends or peers. This shows that the slur did not have much to do with sexuality itself, but how boys and men uphold gender roles and what is expected of them. A boy deemed a “f*g” was at the lowest rung of the adolescent social ladder. Whether or not some boys would agree with the slur, they participated in maintaining the social hierarchy in order to not be ostracized by their peers themselves; for high schoolers, social exclusion could be detrimental. Those who did participate were the popular “jocks” Pascoe writes about, and they received the social benefits of being at the top of the ladder. Society ingrains these ‘masculinity rules’ in boys at an early age that is enforced through many different societal practices. Boys are expected to not show emotion, to ‘be a man,’ and to be aggressive and strong. Those who don’t, don’t represent society’s example of the model man.

Making It By Faking It: Working-Class Students in an Elite Academic Environment

In this article, Robert Granfield juxtaposes working-class law students and upper-class law students within an elite schooling environment in order to study how the working-class students adapt to such a rigorous environment. Granfield “focuses on class stigma by examining a group of highly successful, upwardly mobile, working-class students who gained admission to a prestigious Ivy League law school in the East” (Granfield 332). In the article, the working-class students felt an initial and immediate sense of pride that they were able to be admitted to such an elite institution despite their class-background. They were eager to integrate with the rest of the student body in hopes of achieving their goals of working in social justice.

However, “although initially proud of their accomplishments, they soon came to define themselves as different and their backgrounds a burden” (336). These students felt that their backgrounds left them ill-equipped for the elitist education at the institution, and that it was a hindrance. They felt incompetent compared to their upper-class peers, and in turn isolated and excluded. Granfield highlights a very interesting shift in behavior depicted by the working-class students that follows these feelings of uncertainty. While some working-class students made it a point to really accentuate their working class status (through clothing, for example), other working-class students tried to conceal it. “Concealment allowed students to better participate in the culture of eminence that exists within the law school and reap available
rewards” (340). The working class students learned how to dress in a manner that mimicked their upper-class peers. These working-class students started out as the ‘products’ of an existing social structure (in which the elite are on top), and from being excluded from this environment, they felt the need to adapt and almost alter their outer identities completely in an attempt to be included.

Claiming Deviance and Honoring Community: Creating Spaces in U.S. D*ke Marches

In this highly informative article, Elizabeth Currans’s work centers on the LGBTQ+ community, and how a group that was shunned as deviant in society for centuries was able to come together to form their own community. “By claiming and celebrating deviant identities rather than refuting homophobic claims, marchers attempted to take the power away from value judgments privileging monogamous heterosexual experiences. These moral judgments often have institutional legitimacy and therefore organize state control over bodies deemed sexually deviant” (Currans 86).

“Despite moves toward greater inclusion of LGBTQ people in mainstream U.S. society, racist and classist policies often reinforce social exclusion of less affluent LGBTQ people, including many people of color. The piers along the Hudson River at the edge of the West Village are particularly fraught sites where space is contested, pitting gender-transgressive youth of color against older, wealthier, predominantly white and male residents (Hanhardt 2008; Manalansan 2005)” (Currans 80).

Currans also sheds light on groups that are underrepresented within the LGBTQ+ community, like African-Americans and individuals of a lower class background. She writes of two different marches: the predominantly white “The New York City Annual D*ke March” and the predominantly black “Sistahs Steppin’ in Pride” in Oakland, CA. A member of the D*ke March commented on how the March presents a feeling of familiarity, as many of the attendees come from similar backgrounds, and thus share an understanding of each other. An African-American attendee of Sistahs Steppin described her march experience as a celebration of empowerment. “Johnna revels in a defiant “love us or leave us” attitude, while Teresa emphasizes communal celebration and care. These orientations demonstrate distinct understandings of public recognition and divergent engagements with dominant cultural narratives regarding the supposed sexual deviance of queer people, discourses that overlap with descriptions of communities of color as sexually aberrant” (74).

By highlighting those that feel overshadowed and unwelcomed in groups that were already unwelcomed by society as a whole, Currans is depicting ‘deviance within deviance.’ People of color repeatedly comment on how they feel excluded within the D*ke Marches, and within the LGBT+ community as well. African-American members of the community make a point to add that discussion of racism must be included in LGBT+ discourse. “While many women of color participate in the New York march, it remains disproportionately white compared to the racial demographics of the city’s five boroughs. The organization of a racially diverse, black-dominated East Bay counterpart to the San Francisco march in 2002 also shows a continued need for geographically specific ways of addressing sexism and homophobia that take into account different relationships to racially charged narratives of sexual deviancy” (79).

Click here (or scroll to the link below) to view a riveting documentary titled, “The Mask You Live in,” about boys and young men and their attempts to stay true to themselves while navigating society’s definition of manhood.

https://brynmawr.kanopy.com/video/mask-you-live

Sources:

• Pascoe, C. J. “‘Dude, You’Re a Fag’: Adolescent Masculinity and the Fag Discourse.” Sexualities, vol. 8, no. 3, 2005, pp. 329–346., doi:10.1177/1363460705053337.
• Granfield, Robert. “Making It By Faking It.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, vol. 20, no. 3, 1991, pp. 331–351., doi:10.1177/089124191020003005.
• Currans, Elizabeth. “Claiming Deviance and Honoring Community: Creating Resistant Spaces in U.S. Dyke Marches.” Feminist Formations, vol. 24, no. 1, 2012, pp. 73–101., doi:10.1353/ff.2012.0009.