“Girls Are Retarded When They're Stoned.” Marijuana and the Construction of Gender Roles Among Adolescent Females

Abstract

This paper examines why adolescent femalescontinue to use less marijuana than do adolescent males,with a particular emphasis on the normative boundariesthat restrict females in their access to and use of marijuana. The results are based on theanalysis of the transcripts of 42 focus groups, with 122male and 110 female participants. Focus groups wereconducted in nine separate high schools, three of which included sizeable numbers of students ofnon-European ancestry. The results suggest thattraditional gender roles continue to limit females intheir access to this particular form of leisure andsociability, and that these roles are in part enforced bymale peers in their capacity as dealers anddistributors.