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ERIC Number: EJ765740
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2007
Pages: 20
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0013-1946
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Heterosexism, Perfection, and Popularity: Young Lesbians' Experiences of the High School Social Scene
Payne, Elizabethe C.
Educational Studies: Journal of the American Educational Studies Association, v41 n1 p60-79 2007
This article explores the ways in which high school girl popularity is constructed as heterosexual and normatively gendered, leaving lesbian adolescents on the periphery of the high school social scene. Based upon data from a larger critical life history study with adolescent lesbians, this article explores their experiences of school, friendship, and their attempts to fit in with social groups in school. The young women in this research associated popular with straight and attractive, sometimes using the words interchangeably, and identified the required characteristics of a popular girl as looking perfect and a fluency in boy-talk. Girls less concerned with their appearance or with boys were marked as outsiders in the high school culture. How schools participate in reproducing heterosexist popularity is also discussed.
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. 10 Industrial Avenue, Mahwah, NJ 07430-2262. Tel: 800-926-6579; Tel: 201-258-2200; Fax: 201-236-0072; e-mail: journals@erlbaum.com; Web site: http://www.LEAonline.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: High Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A