Gay Teens and Their Bullies: Heteronormative Disciplinary Power in Secondary Schools

• In Event: Walking the Talk: Rethinking Educational Settings as Sites for Examining Sexualities

Abstract

In this paper, I draw on queer theory and Michel Foucault’s writings on disciplinary power to examine how the identities of ‘normal’ gay youth and ‘abnormal’ homophobic bullies are being constructed within the space of secondary schools.
Efforts to address the issue of homophobia in school is an excellent example of the way that academic knowledge may be used to improve education and serve the public good. In the past two decades, in large part thanks to academic research, the category of “gay teenager” has become intelligible as a segment of the population with distinct needs, challenges and experiences. The emergence of this new category is linked to two separate but interconnected phenomena: (1) the recognition of schools as institutional sites where homophobia proliferates and (2) the growing attention and concern generated around the topic of bullying in schools. The subsequent (yet simultaneous) production of homophobic bullying as a distinct problem in school has opened up possibilities for scholars, activists and educators to bring changes to their schools in the hopes of curtailing the prevalence of homophobic discourse in this particular educational setting.
The identification of the homophobic bully as a ‘dangerous individual’ may seem positive, but the individualization of the problem of homophobia in schools needs to be interrogated. This paper aims to accomplish this by discussing how the figures of both the homophobic bully and the gay teenager have emerged as effects of the way that heteronormative disciplinary power circulates in schools. Instead of challenging the way that heteronormativity functions in schools, common understandings of homophobic behaviour tend to individualize prejudice and absolve the role of institutional practices in the perpetuation of heteronormative power.
Gendered harassment, including the type most usually identified as homophobic bullying, have very concrete and material consequences on the lives of young people who attend school. To ensure that academic work on sexuality and schooling can transform into educational practices that improve school climates for all students, it is crucial that we take the time to critically assess the knowledge being disseminated in schools. Part of that work is remaining cautious of the concepts that frame our understandings of gay teenagers and homophobic bullies, so that we may be attentive to the ways that heteronormativity can be enabled by the very educational practices supposed to undermine it and improve the lives and educational experiences of young people.

Author

• Hélène Frohard-Dourlent, The University of British Columbia