Abstract
In this paper the author summarizes several life history case studies of adolescent boys who were identified at school as “wimps” and who eventually engaged in various forms of sexual violence. Such boys rarely are— if at all—discussed in the childhood, education and feminist literatures on sexual violence. The life stories reveal the interrelationship among inschoolbullying, reflexivity, embodied structured action, and the social construction of heteromasculinities in the commission of sexual violence by subordinated boys. The author concludes by considering the implications the research has to the evolving discourses on social scientific conceptualizations of reflexive embodiment and heteromasculinities.
Highlights
Since the 1990s, I have focused much of my research on life history interviews of adolescent boys and girls involved in violence and nonviolence (Messerschmidt, 2000, 2004, 2012, 2016)
The life stories of adolescent boys— which are the subject of this paper—reveal a close relationship among in-school bullying, reflexivity, embodiment, and heteromasculinities in understanding their involvement in sexual violence
Before I begin summarizing two of the adolescent boy life history case studies, let me explain what I mean by “reflexivity,” because it may be an unfamiliar term to some readers
Summary
Since the 1990s, I have focused much of my research on life history interviews of adolescent boys and girls involved in violence and nonviolence (Messerschmidt, 2000, 2004, 2012, 2016). The life stories of adolescent boys— which are the subject of this paper—reveal a close relationship among in-school bullying, reflexivity, embodiment, and heteromasculinities in understanding their involvement in sexual violence. In reflexivity we exercise our conscious mental ability to consider ourselves in relation to the particular social context and circumstances we experience (Archer, 2007). This conscious mental capacity in reflexivity involves engaging in internal conversations with ourselves about particular social experiences and deciding how to respond appropriately. The partial synopses of these two boys’ life histories serve as examples of what in-school bullying, reflexivity, embodiment, heteromasculinities and sexual violence by certain adolescent boys looks like in practice. I conclude by reflecting upon what we learn from these life stories, in particular the relationship among reflexive embodiment, heteromasculinities, and sexual violence
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