This book reports the findings of a study of adolescent culture and language in eighth graders. The books consists of ten chapters including discussions of the following topics: (1) "Remember When?" a theoretical framework; (2) "Gender, Talk, and School Culture," an interpretive and a dialectic approach to the study of gender, talk, and inequality; (3) "Entering the World of Middle School," the context of the study; (4) "Segregating the Unpopular from the Popular," the school's status relations; (5) "Tough Guys, Wimps, and Weenies," the socialization of the males in the study; (6) "Crude Comments and Sexual Scripts"; (7) "Learning To Smile through the Pain"; (8) "We May Be Friends with Them, But We're Not Sluts," a discussion of girls' coping mechanisms; (9) "Gender, Talk, and Inequality"; and (10) "Where Do We Go from Here?" Major findings suggest that boys' aggressiveness and insensitivity toward girls is directly related to male socialization, which inculcates a general focus on competitive success in life. (JW)