Soft boys, tough boys and the making of young sporty masculinities at a private boys' school

Abstract

abstractThis Briefing looks at the ways in which sport plays an influential role in the social construction of hegemonic masculinity among a group of 13- and 14-year-old boys at an elite private boys' school. Because sport forms such a vital segment of school life for many boys and is riddled with masculinising associations, this study argues that sport serves as a means through which many boys can construct, negotiate and perform their masculinity in a process of identity formation in which sexuality is embedded. This data is collected from an ethnographic study and exploration into the construction of masculinities in a single sexed boys' school. The boys use participation in sport as part of their masculinising process by drawing on their bodies' sexualised and gendered power, and by subordinating femininity that they associate with boys who do not play sport or who lack sporting competencies. Boys' investment in sport is, therefore, highly sexualised and in the heteronormative school environment they confront the inequalities of the gender hierarchy which marks soft boys from tough boys. It is argued that in choosing which sports to play there is already pressure on boys to distance themselves from homosexuality. Whilst much of the focus in South Africa is about encouraging sports, this Briefing argues that boys' meaning of sport is both gendered and sexualised contributing to the making of unequal gender relations among boys as well as the uncritical acceptance of homophobia as normal in a private boys' school.