Fag Discourse

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In the excerpt “‘Dude, You’re a Fag’: Adolescent Masculinity and the Fag Discourse” published in 2007, C.J. Pascoe, a feminist scholar and professor of sociology at the University of Oregon, argues American adolescent boys misuse a homosexual label “fag” as a verbal mechanism to increases one’s own masculinity. Furthermore, she argues “fag discourse is racialized” which means the context of how the term is used changes depending on people’s ethnicity and cultures (571). Pascoe said male strives for masculinity begins during adolescence, especially in high school. She claims the term “fag” was not used literally to represent homosexuality; instead, it is used to show weakness such as “devoid of power, which, in its contradiction, threatens both psychic and social …show more content…
White Americans tend to be more ridicule than African Americans with homophobia because white Americans are more ingrained with the idea of homosexual than African Americans. African Americans expresses masculinity as a “rappers and filmmakers” (573). According to Pascoe, queer theory is a “conceptualization which sees sexual power as embedded in different levels of social life”, which signifies the different interaction between white American and African Americans adolescent boys (574). She said the term “could be (and often has been) framed as a type of subordinated masculinity attached to homosexual adolescent boys’ bodies” (573). Masculinity is closely linked to appearing masculine such as how African American associated their masculinity with a “cool pose” appearance. They expresses “unique, expressive and conspicuous styles of demeanor, speech, gesture, clothing, hairstyles, walk, stance and handshake” as their way of expressing dominance (582). Depending on people’s ethnicity and culture, homosexuality changes its context on their association with one