|
In the final report of the Advisory Group on Education for
Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in School (1998) and the
Review of the National Curriculum (1999) issues concerning sexuality are
conspicuously absent. In the last decade defining citizenship in
narrowly political terms identified with the public sphere has been
increasingly criticised (Arnot et al 1996, Richardson 1998, Prokhovnik
1998, Rahman forth). David Evans (1993) took the view that the sexual
had been detached from the mainstream power relations and interests
which, he pointed out, are nevertheless central to government and
institutional policy and practice under capitalism (see also Inman &
Buck 1995, Osler et al 1995).
In this chapter I shall show how sexuality is related to citizenship
and why citizenship education requires an analysis of gendered power
relations and the inequalities between sexual identities that are rooted
in the dominance of heterosexuality as a social institution. This
development would involve widening the Personal Social and Health
Education (PSHE) curricular to make it relevant to the needs of society
where the relations between men and women and between different ethnic
groups are undergoing rapid change. I shall begin by discussing the
relation between the social and the sexual order and then outline three
issues which need to be embraced within citizenship education.
The Relation of the Social to the Sexual Order
The 'personal is political' was one of the core slogans of the
women's liberation movement of the 1960s, where issues relating to
sexuality were seen as relegated to the 'private' sphere. Ideas
associated with breaking down the division between the private and the
public sphere have been at the core of much feminist critique of the
analysis of citizenship. Prokhovnic (1998) in her review of different
critiques of citizenship suggests that the feminist challenge to the
public/private dichotomy has involved, on the one hand the need to
include gendered power within the family, marriage and sexuality, and,
on the other hand a need to provide an alternative to the public/private
split. Similarly, for the concept of citizenship to cover issues of
sexuality, which are often and simplistically relegated to the private
sphere, a radical redefinition of the public/private distinction is
needed.
During the last decades, the whole distinction between the private
and public spheres has become blurred as women have entered the public
sphere of work, and the state has increasingly become involved in issues
traditionally relegated to the private sphere such as reproductive
rights, sex education and domestic violence (see Women's Unit 1999). The
family with its sexual division of labour was seen by feminists in the
1970s as the main cause of women's subordination. In The Sexual Contract
Carol Pateman analysed how the social contract, on which democratic
government rested, is premised on the sexual control of women by men
(see Arnot 1997). She traces the development of relationships based on
equality or a social contract, and discusses the distinction between
social contracts typical of labour relations and sexual contracts,
typical of marriage relationships. She shows how sexual contracts were
based on a slave type of relationship. Since old domestic contracts
between a master and his slave and servants were labour contracts, she
points out that the marriage contract can be seen as a kind of labour
contract. Indeed, over the past three centuries feminists have compared
wives to slaves, servants and workers.
With the separation of production from the family, male domestic
labourers became workers. The important point that Pateman makes is that
the wage labourer, in contrast to the domestic labourer, stands as a
civil equal with his employer in the public realm of the capitalist
market. A housewife remains in private domestic spheres, but unequal
relation of domestic life are 'naturally so' and thus do not detract
from the universal equality of the public world. The marriage contract
reflects the patriarchal ordering of nature embodied in the original
contract through which a sexual division of labour is constituted.
Pateman perceptively argues that women cannot be inserted into the
public sphere without involving a complete upheaval of the private
sphere as women will be no longer prepared to accept the subordination
based on a 'sexual' contract and will start demanding equality in the
home. One result could be that young women will not find marriage
attractive particularly if young men are not able to be the breadwinner.
The dramatic rise in the divorce rate, the fall in the rate of
marriage and the rise of illegitimacy, can be seen as indications that
this is already occurring (see Lees 1999). More children are born out of
wedlock than ever before. According to Kiernan and Wicks (1990) by the
year 2,000 it may be that as few as half of all children will have spent
their lives in a conventional two parent family with both their natural
parents. Women are marrying later and divorcing earlier. Three quarters
of divorces are now initiated by women and divorce has increased sixfold
in England and Wales over the past 30 years, a higher increase than in
any other European country. More women are choosing to have children
outside marriage. By the early 1990s 27 per cent of births were to
unmarried mothers (Muncie et al 1995). This means that women do not have
equal access to citizenship with men, due to her position in the family
as carers. The social order, therefore, depends on what Connell (1987)
referred to as the 'gender order, or the power relations between men and
women. The gender order needs to be addressed as part of a person's
understanding of how the social order works. Instead of viewing the
family and sexual identities as biologically 'natural', this approach
views the heterosexual nuclear family as an institution which has been
legitimised by such essentialist discourses rather than as socially and
historically constructed. I shall first explore three ways in which
sexuality and citizenship have been linked which should provide core
units on the citizenship curriculum - defining the role of sex/sexual
education, the concept of sexual rights and its relation to certain
groups which are discriminated against, and thirdly, the mechanisms of
conformity and resistance and their relation to bullying and violence.
Gendered power relations are crucial elements of each of these issues.
Sexuality and citizenship
Various suggestions have been put forward about how to widen the
remit of the national curriculum. Osler (1995) suggests that citizenship
education should cover forms of social exclusion and discrimination
based on racism and sexism and should 'prepare young people for European
citizenship and most effectively confront racism, xenophobia, sexual
inequality and other challenges to social justice' (p 3). Others have
argued for the inclusion of sex education. Edwards & Fogelman
(1993), for example, are critical that the formation of sexual identity
and sex education have not been integrated into debates about
citizenship education. Inman & Buck (1995) go further and suggest
that citizenship education should include issues relating not just to
sex education, which they argue has a biological ring to it, but instead
to what they prefer to term 'sexuality education'.
Firstly, the concept of citizenship is closely associated with the
institutionalisation of heterosexual as well as male privilege
(Richardson 1998). Citizenship education should, therefore, begin with a
critique of what Connell (1995) refers to as 'the gender order' whereby
the social, legal and institutional processes through which citizenship
rights are established and maintained are gendered. If the subject of
sexuality is to be addressed effectively, citizenship education needs to
include an awareness of gendered power relations which structure sexual
interaction and relationships (Thomson and Holland 1994). As Rahman
(2,000 forth) argues this requires an understanding not only of the way
inequalities between sexual identities are rooted in heterosexism, but
rather than institutionalised or compulsory heterosexuality is an effect
of the exploitation which constitutes gender division. Male
homosexuality, for example, only came into being as a social identity as
part of the processes which institutionalised a rigid division of gender
identities. This is crucial to citizenship education which should be
concerned with more than the imparting of knowledge, but also with an
understanding of the way heterosexism creates the constraints on
autonomy and choice. Adrienne Rich (1980) for example, suggested that
heterosexuality and marriage are not actively chosen by girls and
therefore could be seen as 'compulsory'. In other words the choice of
getting married became a negative one - of avoided being left on the
shelf. Such gender divisions are legitimised with recourse to
essentialist discourses of gender such as 'it is unnatural for a woman
not to marry and have children'.
Secondly, citizenship education should address current debates about
what constitutes the rights of citizenship. It is argued that the right
to choose and express your sexuality is a basic human right. In this
sense certain groups such as lesbians or gay men have been denied equal
social benefits as married couples (Evans 1993, Richardson 1998). This
should not, in Rahman's (1998) view lead groups to seek equal rights (to
marry for example) since the equal right agenda takes the normality of
heterosexuality as given and hence fails to question the legitimacy of
its institutionalisation.
The concept of citizenship is sometimes used to refer to sexual
'rights' granted or denied to other groups whose rights of citizenship
can be seen to be curtailed as a result of family disruption or
alternative family patterns as, for example, victims of male violence or
single mothers. Research has shown that male violence against women has
the effect of disempowering many victims by leading to the break up of
relationships, loss of work, psychological disturbances and at the
extreme mental breakdown and suicide (see Koss & Harvey 1991, Lees
1997). Single parent mothers are a particularly poverty stricken group
considered by New Labour as socially excluded (Bradshaw & Millar
1991, Millar 1994, Mann and Roseneil 1999). In this context, the absence
of satisfactory sex education which leads to teenage pregnancy will be
seen as an example of the deprivation of citizen rights.
This leads to a third way in which sexuality is related to
conceptions of citizenship and which citizenship education should
address. Bullying and violence among teenagers is now more recognised,
but is rarely linked to heterosexuality and the mechanisms by which the
gender order is both developed and maintained. Bullying and violence, as
I shall show, is intricately connected to the way sexual identities are
formed and maintained in the heterosexual gender order.
Sex/ sexual Education and its relation to Citizenship Education
The Advisory Group on Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of
Democracy in Schools (1998) examined the most effective way of providing
citizenship education. The three strands identified by the committee
were social and moral responsibility, political literacy and community
involvement. The Advisory Group developed a national framework for PSHE
in schools as part of the wider review of the national curriculum which
led to proposals by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority in 1999
for combining citizenship education with PSHE ( QCA 1999). Both reports
address relationship issues in terms such as 'encouraging self respect'
and 'non conflictual conflict resolution'. It states the aims as : to
help develop communication and negotiation skills in a range of contexts
including citizenship and human rights education.
What appears to be overlooked in both reports is the need to base
relationship and communication education, let alone citizenship and
human rights issues, in the context of the power relations within which
they are embedded. In order to be effective, such education needs to
address on the one hand issues of citizenship rights and the
discriminatory forces that prevent some groups taking up their rights,
and on the other hand, the power relations embedded in the social
relations of family, the school and the community.
Introducing an analysis of gendered power into the curriculum, along
with tolerance of gays and lesbians, presents the government with a
dilemma. Education has always been concerned with fitting individuals
into the status quo which is generally assumed to be the heterosexual
two parent family. Both the last Conservative and present Labour
government has been concerned about the growing disintegration of the
traditional family and have been anxious to avoid being seen as
encouraging promiscuity and immorality (see Kelly 1992, Thomson &
Holland 1994) For this reason government attitudes to sex education have
fluctuated and the scope has been both restricted and narrow (see
Thomson 1994; Sex Education Forum 1992, Corlyon & McGuire 1997). So,
under the Education Act 1986, for example, it was specified that sex
education should be placed 'in a moral and family framework' (Durham
1991) and the controversial clause 28 of the Local Government Act (1988)
went so far as to make it illegal for local authorities to intentionally
promote homosexuality or the acceptability of homosexuality as 'a
pretended relationship' sic family relationship.
Similar contradictions are reflected in the government's approach to
Britain's record of the highest teenage conception and motherhood rates
in Western Europe (Cabinet Office 1998, Dollomore, 1989, Hudson and
Ineichen 1991). As Fox Harding (1999) points out, education circulars in
the late 1980s and 1990s cautioned teachers against giving contraceptive
advice to under 16s without parental knowledge or consent. Yet a major
study of 37 countries found that adolescent pregnancy rates are lower in
countries where there is greater availability of contraceptive services
and sex education ( Jones et al 1985). Similarly, a more recent study of
the World Health Organisation (Baldo, Aggleton and Slutkin 1993)
indicated that knowledge of sex and contraception does not encourage or
increase sexual activity among the young but may, in fact, be
instrumental in delaying sexual activity and promoting safer sex.
While the promotion of sex education was one of the five priorities
identified by the government white paper, Health of the Nation (HMSO
1992), recent statistics from the Green Paper on Public Health
(Department of Health 1998) suggest that targets set to reduce the
number of teenage conceptions by 50 per cent have not been met and there
is evidence that teenage mothers may harm their own health and that of
their babies and may become enmeshed in a cycle of deprivation
(Folkes-Skinner & Meredith 1997). Instead of realising the need to
develop a more effective and better resourced form of sex education in
the UK, a high degree of consensus developed in hostility to single
parents, and, in particular, to never married mothers who were seen as a
particular burden on the state. Unmarried mothers were periodically
attacked by politicians for 'jumping the Council housing queue',
deliberately becoming pregnant in order to do so, and 'wedded to
welfare'. Mann and Roseneil (1994) analysed the ways that single parents
have been blamed for what Charles Murray (1990, 1994), American right
wing social scientist, depicted as 'disintegration of the nuclear family
as the principal source of so much social unrest and misery'. Murray had
gained much publicity in the UK by propagating the idea that the rise in
single mothers was linked to the threat of an 'underclass', whose three
characteristics are illegitimacy, violent crime and drop out from the
workforce.
In June 1999 the government announced a 10 year strategy, launched by
Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to halve the rate of teenage pregnancies by
2010. The Social Exclusion Unit (SEU), a unit set up by the government
to address problems of poverty and social exclusion, stated that early
pregnancy prevents young women from gaining an education and has
implications for both themselves and their children's ability to
participate fully as citizens in society. Single parenthood is
associated with poverty and deprivation and can be seen as connected to
social exclusion in a number of respects: the interruption of schooling
leading to low literacy levels, further social exclusion from the work
force, and transmission of poverty to children.
Yet the contradiction implicit in addressing sexuality education at
the same time as supporting the traditional family are still evident.
There is a vagueness about the role of schools in the programme and
concern about the lack of measures to improve the availability of
contraception in particular in regard to providing contraceptive advice
to young people (Guardian June 15, 1999). There is anxiety that the new
guidance on prescribing contraception to under 16s will require health
professionals to discuss 'the arguments for delaying sexual activity'.
This is reminiscent of comments made by Tessa Jowell Public Health
Minister, in 1998, when she suggested that underage girls who asked
their doctors for contraceptives should be given a lecture on the
dangers of promiscuity (Nicoll 1998).
What implications does this analysis have for the way that
citizenship education should be taught in school? Sex education has been
inadequately resourced and funded. Its remit is often severely limited
and it fails to address the complexity of the way sex gender relations
are structured. It is here that citizenship education in the broad sense
could be a crucial tool for improving sexual education. Citizenship in
this sense is seen as a set of rights, where educating young men and
women about the way sexual identities are constructed, about sexual
behaviour/orientation and contraception and about parenting
responsibilities should be considered as important as the mechanics of
contraceptive devices. Issues of responsibility and moral choice are
mentioned in the Advisory Committee's report but not related to
questions of gendered power relations. It is not enough, for example, to
give young men and women information about contraception without
examining the social context in which negotiation between young women
and men takes place in regard to its use and the power relations between
them. A consideration of Gilligan's (1982) 'In a Different Voice' would
be a good beginning.
The Relation between Citizenship and Sexual Identity
The relation between education, sexual identity and citizenship
rights has until recently been neglected. Feminists in the early 1980s
criticised the youth subcultural analysis of young men's resistance
strategies for ignoring how this was linked to the oppression of young
women and of Asian and African Caribbean young people (McRobbie 1978,
1991, Amos & Parmar 1981, Carby 1982). In the 1990s the relation
between education and the development of sexual identity has been an
important focus of research and, as I shall show, is relevant to the
issue of citizenship rights. Schools produce a range of masculinities
and femininities, and, as Mac An Ghaill (1994:115) argues 'at the
cultural level the promoted institutionalised modes of masculinity and
femininity constructed in everyday social practices, provide the bases
of women's subordination'. This also leads to female exclusion from
certain citizenship rights and the exclusion of young men who do not fit
the heterosexual ideal (i.e. gay men).
Citizenship education needs to contest gendered power relations which
had a differential effect on girls and boys from different class and
racial groups. Providing education on how sexual identities are
constructed and choices constrained is an essential starting point. This
leads us to consider the arena not just of sex education, but to the
broader area of desire and sexuality along the lines suggested by Hanson
& Patrick . They persuasively argued that young people should be
provided with 'an understanding of their sexuality, the choices that
flow from it and the knowledge, understanding and power to make those
choices positive, responsible and informed' (See in Inman & Buck
1995: 76). Making informed choices is more complex than is often
assumed. It requires an understanding of how the double standard
operates and how gender relations are constructed. Such relations are
all too often taken for granted. In the next section I shall outline
three areas which should be integrated into the citizenship curriculum.
1. Constructing and maintaining male and female sexual identities
International social science research on masculinities expanded
dramatically in the 1990s as researchers increasingly recognised the
importance of examining different forms of masculinity and their
relationship to each other and to constructs of femininity. It is
important to grasp that constructions of masculinity and femininity are
dynamic and are related to the public sphere and therefore to concepts
of citizenship. Such constructions vary from one society to another,
evolve within a historical contexts and are dynamic. We need to examine
the way gender is situationally structured (depending too on certain
differences of race, class and social orientation) in order to
understand the relationship between gender, power and social structure
(see Connell 1987, 1995; Messerschmidt 1995).
Connell (1995,1998) an Australian sociologist, showed how different
gender regimes in schools are embodied hierarchically in educational
institutions and that education produces different forms of masculinity.
He uses the term 'gender order' to describe such patterns at the macro
social level. These forms of masculinities have developed historically
in different contexts and are dynamic. At a prestigious fee paying
school he discovered social dynamics where the sporting 'bloods' claimed
superiority in masculinity over the academic 'cyrils', and in a rural
high school where the 'cool guys' distinguished themselves from the
'swots' and 'wimps'. With Carrigan et al (1987:183), Connell was the
first to put forward the concept of hegemonic masculinity which he saw
as constructed in relation to and opposed to femininity and subordinated
forms of masculinity. He argued that the institutional structure of
schooling is central to the production of masculine subjectivities.
Mac An Ghaill in The Making of Men (1994) explored how British boys
learn to be men and how schools actively produce, through official and
hidden curriculum, a range of masculinities. He agreed with Connell's
view that the dominant form of hegemonic masculinity dominated
subordinated forms of masculinity and forms of femininity (see also
Carrigan et al 1987) and was linked to heterosexuality. A number of
researchers agreed that the construction of an ideal heterosexuality is
a crucial aspect of the structuring of gender relations (see Mac An
Ghaill 1994, 1996, Connell 1995, 1998, Jackson. & Salisbury 1996,
Griffin & Lees 1997). Connell (1987) also regarded 'emphasised
femininity' ( organised around heterosexual appeal, desire and
subordination) as a response to the dominance of hegemonic masculinity.
Research on identity and masculinity has shown that male power is
based on the development and maintenance of hegemonic heterosexual
masculinity. A number of studies have also reflected the way that girls
were constrained by this hegemonic form of sex gender relations (see
Halson 1989, McRobbie 1991, Holland et al 1998). In my research
involving interviewing adolescent girls ( Lees 1986,1993) I found that
the construction of female identity involved the construction of a
difference between slags (whores, promiscuous girls) and drags (
marriageable respectable girls): Sexuality is not natural for women but
only resides in the slag. The criteria for assessing reputation, from
appearance (such as wearing your skirt too short or your top too low) to
acting independently (such as going place on your own or being a single
mum) are ambiguous. The lack of specific content of the term slag means
that girls are in a permanent state of vulnerability and its actual
usage is such that any unattached girl is vulnerable to being
categorised as a slag. Their only defence is to deny the truth of the
allegation or to revert to the protection of a boyfriend by getting
attached. As Cain (1989) points out, the solidarity and collective
denial of the validity of these criteria has not even occurred to the
girls. They accept the criteria and end up assisting the boys in the
policing of other girls; They are as likely to call other girls 'slags'
as the boys. They become 'God's police in North London' (Summers 1975).
Hegemonic masculinity is defined in relation to the subordination of
women, and in relation to other subordinated marginalised masculinities.
Powerful young men in Joyce Canaan's (1998) study of young working class
men's masculinity, for example, were referred to as 'cocks' whereas the
softest young men were referred to as 'wankers' indicating that male
genitals played a central role in young men's constructions of masculine
identity. Canaan showed how the constructions of masculinity around
hardness had direct consequences for the young women's experience of
sexual relationships. Women were defined as 'soft' and therefore as
subordinate. They could not choose their partners and once they entered
into relationships with young men, they were seen as objects to be
controlled.
2. Resistance, bullying and violence
Since the 1980s and 1990s there has been growing concern amongst
teachers, educational policy makers and researchers as well as parents,
about the incidence of bullying in schools (Mahony 1985, Tattum &
Lane 1989, Arnot 1998). The Secretary of State's proposals (QCA 1999)
for citizenship education are worthy but superficial. They include such
platitudes as 'helping pupils to develop effective and fulfilling
relationships', 'to respect differences between people', and to
learn'the consequences of racism, teasing, bullying and violent
behaviour, to respond appropriately to them and ask for help, to
recognise and challenge stereotypes'. The phrasing of this epitomises
the lack of understanding of why bullying occurs, the power relations
involved and the role of educational practices in supporting rather than
contesting such behaviour and the naivety of imagining that it is merely
a questions of 'teaching appropriate responses'!
Bullying and violence need to be understood within the context of the
gender and ethnic order. School policies can either encourage of
discourage such phenomenon and are closely related to the 'gender/ethnic
order' of particular schools. A major problem is that the prevalence of
bullying that pervades many classrooms and playgrounds is often
undetected by teachers and parents. Bronwyn Davies in her study of
primary school children makes two important points about how gender
differences are maintained in groups, and how bullying and the
construction of sexual identities are inter-dependent. Firstly, she
suggests that the dichotomy between 'male' and 'female' requires
collective activity to maintain it. This collective activity she calls
'category maintenance work' which is primarily aimed at maintaining the
category as meaningful. Secondly, it is the boundaries of male and
female behaviour that this category maintenance work occurs. Girls and
boys do not always behave in sex appropriate ways, nor do men and women.
Often the boundaries between male and female appropriate behaviour are
violated. This leads to a reaction to bring the deviant back into line
(Davies 1989:29). This takes the form of bullying, of teasing and at the
extreme, of violence.
Any deviant behaviour (for example a boy behaving like a girl) leads
to other members of the group letting the deviant know they have done
wrong. If a boy bursts into tears he is called a 'cry-baby'. If a girl
does the same she is behaving just like a girl should and she is
comforted. Teasing is usually about bringing category deviants back into
line. Though individuals can deviate from the prescription of
masculinity and femininity, their deviance gives rise to category
maintenance work, in order to maintain the category as a meaningful one
in the face of individual deviance which threatens it. Girls who behave
like tomboys and boys who like to talk to girls are teased and
disapproved of by the more conforming groups. Category maintenance work
is more important for a boy than a girl as masculinity only reflects
superiority if differentiated from femininity. For boys to hang around
with girls is to acknowledge their similarity. To be similar to girls is
to be associated with a lower status group which means that it may be
worse for a boy to show feminine characteristics than for girls to show
masculine characteristics. Hegemonic heterosexual masculinities are,
therefore, constructed and defined in terms of the subordination of
women, which reflect sexual rights and rights to servicing by women.
Bullying is therefore a strategy for maintaining categories and is
supported by the regime of the school. When an individual deviates from
their sex category they are teased, or violence may result. It is not
only pupils that bully, teachers can also be involved in similar
activity. The most thorough study of how violence is present in
educational practices for boys was undertaken by Beynon (1989) who found
that violence towards boys was deeply embedded in teachers practices of
crowd control in a 'tough' school he studied. He began by observing
teachers and pupils in the process of transition to secondary school. He
observed a number of staff employing threats as part of the
institutional welcome. Boys were hit, pushed and shaken. In lower school
a hard core of male teachers regarded coercive measures as synonymous
with 'good' teaching and a virtue to be upheld. He argued that most
violence threatens personal rights, undermines social order and is
illegal. However some violence is deemed to be traditionally and
commonsensically acceptable. The manhandling increased the more Benyon
became accepted as a member of staff. The lower school was a site of
much violence linked by staff and pupils to 'being a man' in which
'weaklings go under'. Men and boys expected to put up with a certain
amount of manly behaviour if they were to win the accolade of being a
'good teacher' or a 'good lad'. Beynon argues that violence is at the
heart of contemporary masculinity.
Donna Eder (1995) in a study of the social relations of adolescents
in MID West America also found that great importance was placed on men
being aggressive and tough and that the boys conveyed the importance of
toughness through ritual insults. Many of the names the boys used to
insult each other implied some form of weakness such as 'wimp' or
'squirt'. Other names such as 'pussy', 'girl', 'fag' and queer'
associated lack of toughness with femininity or homosexuality. Boys
enhanced their masculinity by throwing homosexual insults at boys who
failed to engage in stereotypical masculine behaviour. Boys who treat
girls as equals are similarly in danger of being stereotyped as gay.
Connolly (1995) in his study of different racial groups in primary
schools confirmed Eder's findings. Sexuality, especially its emphasis on
violence and power, manifested itself most frequently in terms of verbal
abuse and insults. However, some of the group labelled the 'bad boys',
predominantly African Caribbean low achievers were observed in the
playground abusing girls physically, pushing them over, swinging them
round and kicking them.. Discourse on girls were highly radicalised
where being seen as having an Asian boyfriend was grounds for abuse.
Connolly emphasises the active role that very young children play in
construction and negotiation of their identities. He argues for the need
to locate the forging of black masculinities within the specific
contexts provided by racism. He shows the central role of the school and
teaching staff in labelling of African Caribbean boys as 'bad' and the
consequent self fulfilling prophecy which results.
Sexual bullying takes the form of calling girls 'slags' or 'too
tight' which implies that on the one hand that they are promiscuous, or,
on the other hand, that they are lesbian. In either case they are not
conforming to the conventional woman, attached to a man. For boys,
'poof' and 'gay' are used as insults, not just to imply that a boy has a
homosexual orientation, but that he does not fit into the model of
hegemonic masculinity. The linguistic insults show there are real
penalties for breaches of social behaviour and no girl or boy can afford
to disregard. As Maureen Cain writes:
There are real rewards for conventional living, and real penalties
for eschewing it. It is therefore necessary for researchers to recognise
these realities and the discourse of sexually appropriate behaviour
which expresses and constitutes them... it is clear that discourses can
be used to authorise and justify painful and even penal practices, and
that sometimes the use of language can constitute a pain itself ( Cain
1990: 7)
There is some evidence of a connection between harassment and
performance (Williams et al 1996) but as Arnot et al (1998: 61) points
out it is difficult to know the extent of bullying although a number of
studies using open-ended questionnaires and interviews suggest that a
high proportion of children have been bullied at some time in their
school life (see Williams et al 1996, Pitts & Smith 1995, Balding et
al 1996).
Another form of bullying is physical. Violence by boys in dating
relationships is becoming more recognised (Roscoe & Kelley 1986,
Lloyd 1991) and can be life threatening. It has been estimated that
fifty per cent of rapes in the US are perpetuated against adolescents,
with the vast majority taking place between people who know or are
dating each other (Levy 1991). The FBI estimates that twenty per cent of
female homicide victims in the United states are between the ages of
fifteen and twenty four (Spaid 1993). In a British study (Holland et al
1991, 1998) involving interviewing 150 young women in London and
Manchester between the ages of 16 and 20 nearly a quarter of the sample
reported having had unwanted sexual intercourse in response to pressure
from men. These pressures varied from mild insistence to intercourse
with threats, physical assault, and child abuse. In their later study
involving interviewing both young men and women, they identified the
difficulties young women had in negotiating the use of contraception.
They concluded that for women to negotiate safer sexual practices
questions the conventional basis of sexual activity in which it is boys
and men who 'determine the contours, meanings and practices of standard
heterosexuality' ( Holland et al 1998). In the UK there is growing
concern about gang rapes involving children, both as victims and as
perpetrators. In May 1997, for example, four 10 year old boys and a 9
year old were arrested in West London for the alleged rape of a 9 year
old girl in a school toilet during the lunch break. In the same week a
boy of 13 appeared before Wolverhampton magistrates charged with raping
a 12 year old girl on a disused railway line and two boys aged 13 and 15
were charged with indecent assault. It is likely that such cases are the
tip of the iceberg ( Gregory and Lees 1999:109)
A survey by the Zero Tolerance Charitable Trust on young people's
attitudes towards violence against women showed that some young men had
a high acceptance of sexual violence (see Burton et al 1998). One in six
thought they might force sex on a woman to whom they were married, one
in eight thought they might force a long term girlfriend to have sex and
one in ten thought they might 'if they could not stop themselves'. Other
circumstances when they would rape a woman included if nobody would find
out (9 per cent) and if they had spent a lot of money on her (6 per
cent). As Hudson (1998: 247) points out pressure to accomplish an
identity which approximates to 'hegemonic masculinity' helps to explain
why in a socially unequal society which pushes so many young men into
economic marginality, 'those who cannot demonstrate the affluence of
successful masculinity will be likely to exaggerate through violence
their claims that they are racially superior, heterosexual and macho'.
Aggressive and bullying behaviour is not confined to the school, but
is all too prevalent in the home. Two women a week in England and Wales
are killed by their men who are or have been their husbands or
cohabitees ( Home Office Statistics 1997). The 1996 British Crime Survey
reports 1 million incidents of domestic violence with the caveat that
this is likely to be an underestimate. The British Crime survey found
that injuries were far more serious for domestic incidents than for
offences of mugging. Only 31 per cent of reported domestic violence
incidents resulted in no injury compared to 67 per cent of muggings
(Home Office 1996). Braithwaite & Daly (1994) argue that vigorous
social education is needed to make sure that domestic violence, social
and racial violence is behaviour which is strongly disapproved and about
which perpetrators feel a strong sense of shame.
How can schools intervene? The Macdonald Inquiry Report revealed
connections between a schools perpetuation of a white supremacist
masculine ethos, tolerance of racial harassment, neglect of a disturbed
and unhappy pupil, failure to deal with harassment (Kelly 1991).
Shifting gender regimes in schools is no easy task. But there have been
some developments. In the 1980s few schools had developed whole school
policies, but by the close of the 1990s most schools have coherent
policy requirements operating across all areas of institutional practice
(see Arnot 1998: 84, Smith & Sharp 1994, Sharp and Smith 1994).).
Some schools are developing more active policies to reduce sexism,
racism and bullying Various resource packs have been developed. Hands
off is a resource pack for teacher and youth workers to facilitate
workshops with 11 - 14 year olds on stereotyping, bullying and domestic
violence. The material was developed by Welsh Women's Aid and Save the
Children for PSHE. The Sheffield Centre for HIV and Sexual Health has
developed a resource and training pack called Girlpower - how far does
it go?. This offers practical ways of developing assertiveness and
communication in sexual relationships ( see Women's Unit Report 1999:
47) There needs to be much more recognition of the contexts in which
bullying takes place. Complaints about and indicators of bullying need
to be heard and recorded. Effective and appropriate liberating action
needs to be taken. Schools need to recognise the way they perpetuate
patterns of dominance and subordination, and conformity and exclusion..
A possible approach that could be introduced into schools involves
more participatory methods of dispute resolution. A useful model is that
suggested by prison abolitionists of the ideal of restorative justice or
the setting up of 'alternative dispute settlements' (Braithwaite &
Daly 1994). The conference model allows the victim to have
representatives to urge the victim's view of events, in which a feminist
or racial ethnic standpoint can be accommodated. The victim's definition
of harm or threat is at the centre of proceedings. She/he is transformed
from the humiliated victim to an active claimant, identifying her/his
own requirement and drawing her/his own lines in future contacts with
the perpetrator .
Conclusion
Citizenship education is to be introduced into the national
curriculum, but there is little mention of the importance of addressing
the ways schools develop and maintain the heterosexist gender order
which leads to bullying and the denial of citizenship rights. We know a
great deal more about the power relations within the school. This is at
least a first step to shifting sex gender relations. Research into
masculinities has indicated that boys are not a homogeneous group, and
that masculinities vary and change and that schools have a key role not
only in regard to sex education, but also in either enhancing or
contesting sexism, bullying and violence. Citizenship education offers
an opportunity to develop more integrated and comprehensive approach. It
provides an opportunity for schools to develop whole school policies
which would address problems of sexism, homophobia, bullying and
violence which are endemic in the present structure of hegemonic
heterosexuality. It is only when sex education adopts a wider framework
which problematises the relations of power underlying sexual relations
that progress can be made.
Bibliography
Advisory Group on Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of
Democracy in Schools (1998) London: Qualifications and Curriculum
Authority
Amos, V. & Parmar, P (1981) 'Resistances and responses, the
experiences of black girls in Britain' in A. McRobbie & T. McCabe
(eds) Feminism for Girls: An Adventure Story, London: Routledge and
Kegan Paul.
Arnot, M., Araujo, H., Deliyanni-Kouimtzi, K., Rowe, G., Tome, A.
(1996) Teachers, Gender and Discourses of Citizenship, International
Studies in Sociology of Education, vol 6 no: 1: 3-35
Arnot, M., Gray, J., James,M., Ruddock J. (1998) Recent Research on
Gender and Educational Performance, Office for Standards in Education:
London: HMSO
Balding, J. et al (1996) Bully Off: Young People That Fear Going to
School, Schools Health Education Unit, University of Exeter
Baldo, A. Aggleton, P. & Slutkin, E (1993) Does Sex Education
Lead to Earlier or Increased Sexual Activity in Youth? Report
PO-DO2-3444, World Health Organisation
Beynon, J.(1989) 'A School for Men; An Ethnographic Case Study of
Routine Violence in Schooling' in L. Barton & S. Walker (eds)
Politics and the Processes of Schooling; pp 191 - 217 Bradshaw, J &
Millar, J. (1991) Lone Parent Families in the UK, London: DSS Research
Report No 6, HMSO
Braithwaite, J. & Daly, K. (1994) Masculinities and communitarian
control in (eds) T. Newburn & E. Stanko Boys doing Business: Men
Masculinities and Crime, London: Routledge
Burton, S , Kitzinger, J. with Kelly, L & Regan, L. (1998) Young
People's Attitudes Toward Violence Sex and Relationships - Executive
Summary, Zero Tolerance Charitable Trust
Cabinet Office (1998) Women's Unit Fact Sheet 2, London.
Cain, M. (1989) Introduction:feminist transgress criminology in M.
Cain (ed.) Growing Up Good, London: Sage
Canaan, J. (1996) 'One thing leads to another': drinking, fighting
and working-class' in M. Mac An Ghaill (ed) Understanding Masculinities,
Buckingham: Open University Press
Canaan, J. (1998) 'Is 'Doing Nothing' Just Boys' Play' in K. Daly
& L. Maher (eds) Criminology at the Crossroads, Oxford: Oxford
University Press
Carby, H. (1982) 'Schooling in Babylon' in P. Gilroy et al (ed) The
Empire Strikes Back: Race and Racism in 1970s Britain, London:
Hutchinson
Carrigan, T. Connell, R & Lee, J. (1987) 'Towards a New Sociology
of Masculinity' in H. Brod (ed) The Making of Masculinities: The New
Men's Studies, London: Unwin & Hyman
Connell R.W. (1995) Masculinities, Oxford: Polity
Connell, R.W. (1996) 'Teaching the Boys: New Research on Masculinity
and Gender Strategies for Schools', Teacher College Record, Vol 98, NO 2
Winter, Columbia University
Connolly, P. (1995) 'All lads together?: racism, masculinity and
multicultural anti racist strategies in a primary school', International
Studies in Sociology of Education 4,2,191-211
Corlyon, J. & McGuire, C. (1997) Young Parents in Public Care,
London: National Children's Bureau
Davies, B. (1989) Frogs and Snails and Feminist Tales, Sydney: Allen
& Unwin
Davies, B. (1996) Constructing and deconstructing through critical
literacy Gender and Education Special Issue on Masculinities in
Education
Davies, B. (1997) 'Constructing and deconstructing masculinities
through critical literacy', Gender and Education, 9: 9 - 30
Department of Health (1998) Our Healthier Nation, A Contract for
Health, A Consultation Paper London HMSO
Dollomore, G. (1989) Live Births in 1988, Population Trends 57: 20-6
Dunn, J. et al (1992) Personal Development Program For Boys (
Canberra: Act Government, n.d. quoted in Connell (1996) op cit.
Durham, M. (1991) Sex and Politics: The Family and Morality in the
Thatcher Years, Basingstoke, Macmillan.
Eder, D., With C. Evans & S. Parker (1995) School Talk: Gender
and Adolescent School Culture, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers
University Press
Education for citizenship and the treaching of democracy in schools
(1998) Final report of the Advisory Group on Citizenship Qaulifications
and Curriculum Authority
Edwards, J. & Fogelman, K. (eds) Developing Citizenship in the
Curriculum, London: David Fulton Publishers
European Parliament (1986) Report on behalf of the Committee on
Women's Rights on Violence Against Women (d'Ancona Report), A2-44/86:
Luxembourg
Evans, D. (1993) Sexual Citizenship, London: Routledge . Fine, M
(1988) 'Sexuality, Schooling, and Adolescent Females: The Missing
Discourse of Desire', Harvard Educational Review 58; p 29-53
Folkes-Skinner, J. & Meredith, E. (1997) 'Teenage mothers and
their experiences of services'. Health Visitor, 70, (4), 139-140
Fox Harding, L. (1999) 'Family Values' and Conservative Government
Policy' in G.Jagger and C.Wright (eds) Changing Family Values, London:
Routledge
Gilligan, C. (1982) In a Different Voice, Harvard University Press
Gregory, J. & Lees, S. (1999) Policing Sexual Assault, London:
Routledge
Griffin, C. & Lees, S. (ed) 1997 Special Issue: Masculinities and
Education, Gender and Education, 9:1.
Halson, J. (1989 'The Sexual Harassment of Young Women' in Girls and
Sexuality (ed) L. Holly, Buckingham: Open University Press.
Hanson, B. & Patrick, P. (1995) 'Towards Some Understanding of
Sexuality Education' in S.Inman & M.Buck (eds) Adding Value?
Schools' responsibility for pupils' personal development, Exeter:
Trentham Books
HMSO (1992) Health of the Nation, London: Department of Health
Herbert, C. (1989) Talking of Silence: The Sexual Harassment of
Schoolgirls. Sussex: Falmer Press.
Herbert, C. (1992) Sexual Harassment in Schools: A Guide for
Teachers, David Fulton Publ
Holland, J., Ramazanoglu, C., Sharpe, S., Thomson, R. (1991)
Pressured Pleasure, 47 Dalmeny Rd, N7,Tufnell Press
Holland, J., Ramazanoglu, C., Sharpe, S., Thomson, R. (1998) The Man
in the Head, 47 Dalmeny Rd, N7, Tufnell Press
Horsfall, J. (1991) The Presence of the Past: Male Violence in the
Family, Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Howe, A (1994) Punish and Critique: Towards a Feminist Analysis of
Penology, London: Routledge
Hudson, B. (1998) 'Restorative Justice: The Challenge of Sexual and
Racial Violence'; Journal of Law and Society, Vol. 25, NO 2 June
Hudson, F. & Ineichen, B. (1991) Taking it Lying Down, Sexuality
and Teenage Motherhood, London: Macmillan
Inman, S. & Buck, M. (1995) Adding Value: Schools' responsibility
for pupils' personal development, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire
Jackson, D. & Salisbury, J.(1996) 'Why Should Secondary Schools
Take Working with Boys Seriously?' Gender and Education Vol 8, No 1 pp
103-115
Jeffreys, S. (1990) Anticlimax: A Feminist Perspective n the Sexual
Revolution, Women's Press
Jones, E.F. et al (1985) 'Teenage Pregnancy in Developed Countries:
Determinants and Policy Implications', Family Planning Perspectives 17,
2, 53-63 Kelly, L (1992) 'Not in Front of the Children: responding to
right wing agendas on sexuality and education' in M. Arnot & L.
Barton (eds) Voicing Concerns: Sociological Perspectives of Contemporary
Education Reforms Triangle
Kelly, E. (1991) 'Bullying and Racial and Sexual Harassment in
Schools', Multicultural Teaching 10.1
Kelly, E. (1993) 'Gender Issues in Education for Citizenship'in G.K.
Vernon & P.D. Penfrey (eds) Cross Cultural Contexts, Falmer Press.
Kenway, J. (1995) 'Masculinities in Schools: under siege, on the
defensive and under reconstruction?' Discourse : 58 - 79 Vol 16 No 1,
Journals Oxford Kiernan, K. & Wicks, M (1990) Family Change and
Future Policy, London: Family Policy Studie Centre
Koss, M. & Harvey, M. (1991) The Rape Victim: Clinical and
Community Interventions, London: Sage
Lees, S. (1986) Losing Out: Sexuality and Adolescent Girls, Unwins.
Lees, S. (1993) Sugar and Spice, Harmondsworth, Penguin
Lees, S. (1997) Ruling Passions: Sexual Violence, Reputation and the
Law, Buckingham, Open University Press
Lees, S. (1997) Carnal Knowledge: Rape on Trial, Harmondsworth:
Penguin.
Lees, S. (1999) 'Will Boys Be Left On The Shelf' in G. Jagger &
C. Wright (eds) Changing Family Values, London:Routledge
Levy, B. (1991) Dating Violence: Young Women in Danger, Seattle: The
Seal Press
Lloyd, S. (1991) 'The Darkside of Courtship: Aggression and Sexual
Exploitation', Family Relations, 40: 14-20.
Mac An Ghaill, M (1994) The Making of Men: Masculinities, Sexualities
and Schooling, Buckingham, Open University Press
Mac An Ghaill, M. (ed) (1996) Understanding Masculinities, Open
University Press
MacLeod, M. & Morris, S. (1996) Why Me? Children Talking to
Childline about Bullying, London, Childline.
Mann, K. & Roseneil, S. (1994) 'Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em':
backlash and the gender politics of the underclass debate', Journal of
Gender Studies vol 3 No 3
Mann, K. & Roseneil, S. (1999) 'Poor Choices? Gender, agency and
the underclass debate' in G.Jagger and C.Wright (eds) Changing Family
Values, London: Routledge
McRobbie, A.(1978) 'Working Class Girls and the Culture of Femininity
in Women's Studies Group' in (eds) Women Take Issue: Aspects of Women's
Subordination, Centre Contemporary Cultural Studies, London: Hutchinson
McRobbie, A. (1991) Feminism and Youth Culture, Macmillan
Measor, L, Tiffin, C & Fry K. (1996) Gender and Sex Education: a
study of adolescent responses, Gender and Education Vol 8 No 3 :275-288
Messerschmidt, J. (1993) Masculinities and Crime, Rowman &
Littlefield
Millar, J (1994) 'State, Family and Personal Responsibility: The
Changing Balance for Lone Mothers in the UK', Feminist Review 48 Autumn
Muncie, J. Wetherell, M., Dallos, R., & Cochrane, A. (eds) (1995)
Understanding the Family, London: Sage
Murray, C (1990) The Emergent British Underclass, London: IEA Health
and Welfar Unit
Murray, C. (1994) Underclass: The Crisis Deepens, London: IEA Choice
in Welfar Series; No 20
Nicoll, R (1998) 'Underage Sex Lectures by GPs', Guardian January 19,
1998
Osler, A. (1997) 'Introduction: Citizenship, Schooling and Teacher
Education' (p3-15) in A. Osler, H. Rathenow & H. Starkey (eds)
Teaching for Citizenship in Europe, Exeter: Trentham Books
Pateman, C. (1988) The Sexual Contract, Oxford: Polity
Pitts, J & Smith, P (1995) Preventing School Bullying, Policy
Research Group, Crime Detection and Prevention Series, Paper 63
Prokhovnik, R. (1998) 'Public and Private Citizenship: From Gender
Invisibility to Feminist Inclusiveness', Feminist Review No: 60, utumn
pp 84-104
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (May-July 1999) The Review of
the National Curriculum in England: The Secretary of State's Proposals,
DfEE
Rahman, M (1998) 'Sexuality and rights: problematising lesbian and
gay politics' in T. Carver & V. Mottier, Politics of Sexuality,
London Routledge Rahman, M (forth 2,000) Democracy and Citizenship,
Edinburgh University Press. Ramazanoglu, C. & Holland, J. (1993)
'Women's sexuality and men's appropriation of desire' in C. Ramazanoglu
(ed) Up Against Foucault, London: Routledge
Reed, L. (1999) 'Troubling Boys and Disturbing Discourses on
Masculinity and Schooling: A Feminist Exploration of Current Debates and
Interventions Concerning Boys at School', Gender and Education Vol 11,
No 1: 93-111
Rich, A. (1980) Compulsory Sexuality and Lesbian Existence in C.
Stimpson & S. Person, Women Sex, and Sexuality, Chicago University
Press
Richardson, D. (1998) 'Sexuality and Citizenship', Sociology Vol 32,
No: 1 February
Roscoe, B. & Kelley, T. (1986) 'Dating Violence among High School
Students', Psychology 23 (1) 53-59
Sex Education Forum (1992) A Framework for School Sex Education,
National Children's Bureau
Sharpe, S. & Smith, P. (eds) (1994) Tackling Bullying in Your
School, London: Routledge
Skeggs, B. (1991) 'Challenging masculinity and using sexuality',
British Journal of Sociology of Education, 12 (2): 343-58
Smith P. & Sharpe, E (eds) (1994) School Bullying : Insights and
Perspectives, London: Routledge
Spaid, E. (1993) 'Justice: Young Activist Defends Abused Woman',
Christian Science Monitor, 85: 12-13
Summers, C. (1975) Damned Whores and God's Police, Sydney: Penguin
Szirom, T. (1988) Teaching Gender? Sex Education and Sexual
Stereotypes, London: Allen & Unwin.
Tattum, D.P. & Lane, D.A. (1989) Bullying in Schools, Stoke on
Trent: Trentham Books
Thomson, R. (1994) 'Moral Rhetoric and Public Health Pragmatism: The
Recent Politics of Sex Education', Feminist Review No 48 Autumn
Thomson, R. & Holland, J. (1994) 'Young Women and Safer (Hetero)
Sex' in S.Wilkinson & C. Kitzinger (eds) Women and Health: Feminist
Perspectives London: Taylor & Francis
UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing (1995) The Declaration
and Platform for Action, Beijing
Walker, J.C. (1988) Louts and Legends: Male Youth Culture in an Inner
City School, Allen & Unwin.
Weyman, A. (1997) Pregnancy - Choice or Chance? London: Margaret Pyke
Trust.
Williams, K. et al (1996) 'Association of common health symptoms with
bullying in primary school children', British Medical Journal, 313, 6
July 17-19
Women's Unit (1998) Living Without Fear, Cabinet Office: Home Office
|