ABSTRACT
In this chapter, C.J. Pascoe uses her ethnographic research from an American high school to illustrate how teenage masculinity depends upon homophobia to define what it means to be a young man. Teen boys insult one another through “fag discourse,” or calling one another fags in order to establish who is dominant in terms of signaling competency, lack of emotion, and heterosexuality. Teen boys also sexually objectify teen girls in order to establish straight masculinity. Through “compulsive heterosexuality” – a concept which combines compulsory heterosexuality and compulsive masculinity – Pascoe illustrates how teen boys must constantly reassure others of their heterosexuality by exercising sexualized control over girls’ bodies and sex talk.
