#michael kehler

For the most part the gender work many young men do among men is primarily aimed at affirming, reinforcing, and stabilizing an identity that, for all its constructed strengths, is nonetheless an identity of uncertainty and fragility.

Emotionally illiterate and physically bound by traditional masculine codes, young men negotiate the hidden and unspoken words of personal feelings in exchange for the safety of a heteronormative masculinity.

The locker room is a space of hyper-masculinity and highly gendered banter. It’s also an unsupervised space, and this is where some boys exercise their strength and privilege over others. They may not be as capable academically, so these boys use the locker room as a place where they can dominate, make homophobic remarks and belittle other boys. Here, between lockers and benches, the masculine pecking order springs to life. There is no intervention by teachers, so it’s up to the boys to sort themselves out. They figure out who’s who in terms of strength, masculinity and aggression.