Primary School Boys Validating and Resisting Hegemonic Masculinities: “I Don’t Appreciate Violence at all. I Stop the Violence.”

Abstract

This chapter focuses on primary school boys as they perform masculinities in the context of violent gender relations. The chapter demonstrates the fluid nature of masculinities by providing an account of how boys validate and/or resist hegemonic masculinities at school. While many of the research participants were inclined to engage in peaceful versions of masculinities, their ability to do so was often thwarted due to insufficient adult teacher interventions to enable alternative options. Boys thus validated their masculine performances by using habitual constructions of violence against other boys and girls at school. Nevertheless, some boys were able to reflect upon violent hegemonic masculine performances by constructing them as harmful and by advocating peaceful alternatives. The chapter thus argues that violent masculinities at school are not automatic, although the ambivalence through which masculinities are produced can destabilise violent masculinities whilst also reproducing them. I conclude the chapter with implications for developing school support mechanisms that involve providing teachers with the necessary training to assist primary school boys to negotiate masculinities in ways that can generate peaceful patterns of conduct to combat the scourge of violence at school.