Dude You Re A Fag Analysis

The idea of race as a social construct is a controversial one to some. Dominant discourse on race has influenced people to believe that race is biological. It is often defined in terms of “heredity, class, ethnicity” (Bashkow 2006, 204). However, for the Orokaiva people of Papua New Guinea, ideas of race do not rely on the representation of a specific groups of people like in the West, but rather in the difference that they experience from their colonial encounter with the whitemen. This specifically holds true for food as the difference in what the Orokaiva eat from the whitemen becomes an important aspect in the cultural construction of race for them. These differences are aligned with qualities of weakness, softness and lightness, contrasting

The same analysis can be applied to the construction of gender in the ethnographic situation that C.J Pascoe describes in her article “Dude, You’re a Fag”: Adolescent Masculinity and the Fag Discourse.” Pascoe conducts her research in north-central California at a suburban high school she referred to as River High in which she interviews the students on their ideas of gender and the “fag” identity (Pascoe 2005, 333). In the article, she suggests that ideas about gender heavily relies on the difference in the expression of masculinity. In River High, boys use “fag” to describe one’s masculine incompetence, heterosexual prowess and strength (Pascoe 2005, 330). Ben, a white sophomore from River High, explains that anyone can be a called a “fag,” even turning a wrench the wrong way can evoke such name calling (Pascoe 2005, 337). However, Pascoe explains that specific behaviors that render a boy vulnerable can generate the term and Ben demonstrates this through his example (Pascoe 2005, 337). Turning the wench wrong, for instance, illustrates incompetence, which in River High, is a direct link to a failure to embody masculinity (Pascoe 2005, 337). Pascoe further explains that other social practices such as “dancing, caring too much about clothing, being too emotional or expressing interest in other guys, platonically or sexually,” in River High is considered to be non-masculine behavior (Pascoe 2005, 337). It thus becomes clear ideas of gender in River High is formed similarly to the ideas of race by the Orokaiva people. While food became the central framework in the Orokaiva construction of race, the imposed masculine expectation and the “fag” identity was for gender in River