Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the practices by which the self-titled ‘misfit’ boys, a low status peer group in a north London comprehensive attempted to produce themselves as acceptable, heterosexual men despite being excluded from the dominant modes of masculinity in circulation within school.

Paper long abstract:

The group's territory, hidden away at the back of the school, provided a material and symbolic safe space where they could achieve this. Within this space the boys drew on a range of resources to denigrate fellow pupils who embodied dominant forms of masculinity premised on aggression, competition, sporting prowess and power and to validate their own alternative identities.

While rejecting these dominant modes the boys continued to invest deeply in developing a heterosexual masculine identity. 'Sex talk' particularly boundary pushing sexual humour was a key peer group practice that enabled the boys to affirm and emphasise other aspects of masculinity. Further the boys continued to reinforce and police proscriptive notions of appropriate masculinity, particularly through homophobic notions that position being gay as mutually exclusive to a successful masculine identity.

This paper draws attention to the ways in which modes of masculinity are developed in relation to and in contrast to each other within school. It highlights the centrality of sociality in processes of socialisation as pupils develop their identities through their positioning of themselves and their peers in relations of sameness and difference.