‘My friends would laugh at me’: embedding the dominant heterosexual script in the talk of primary school students

Morison, Tracy; Macleod, Catriona I; Lynch, Ingrid

Title: ‘My friends would laugh at me’: embedding the dominant heterosexual script in the talk of primary school students
Creator: Morison, Tracy
Creator: Macleod, Catriona I
Creator: Lynch, Ingrid
Subject: To be catalogued
Date Issued: 2022
Date: 2022
Type: text
Type: article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/441186
Identifier: vital:73864
Identifier: xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2021.1929856"
Description: The dominant ‘heterosexual script’ positions men as sexually desiring subjects who initiate sex and use active displays of power to attract women, and women as passive sexual objects who use indirect means to attract men (e.g. physical appearance). While much research has highlighted how this script is deployed in high school settings, less work has attended to primary schools. We demonstrate how the script operates in the talk of primary school students in low resource South African schools. Data were generated in group discussions conducted for a mid-term review of a school-based sexual violence prevention programme. We show how the heterosexual script is embedded in students’ accounts through the regulatory mechanisms of interpersonal and social risks: threats of being ‘dumped’, sexual coercion, violence, and humiliation. These risks are learnt from an early age and may outweigh sexuality education messaging provided later on, which has implications for such interventions. To address this we advocate for early engagement with young people using a dialogical approach that creates a relational context for resistance to inequitable sexual scripts.
Format: computer
Format: online resource
Format: application/pdf
Format: 1 online resource (17 pages)
Format: pdf
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Language: English
Relation: Gender and Education
Relation: Morison, T., Macleod, C.I. and Lynch, I., 2022. ‘My friends would laugh at me’: embedding the dominant heterosexual script in the talk of primary school students. Gender and education, 34(3), pp.329-345
Relation: Gender and Education volume 34 number 3 p. 329 2022 1360-0516
Rights: Publisher
Rights: Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Taylor and Francis Online Terms and Conditions Statement (https://www.tandfonline.com/terms-and-conditions)
Rights: Closed Access

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Gender Action Forum (GENACT)

Macleod, Catriona Ida (Distinguished Professor)

SDG 05. Gender Equality

RU Department of Psychology

RU DST/NRF SARChI for Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproductions Research (CSSR) Programme

SDG 10. Reduced Inequalities

SDG 03. Good Health and Well-Being

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