(The Mercury (Tasmania, Australia))
`Words will never hurt me' goes the old schoolyard rhyme. They do of
course, and, as CHRISTOPHER BANTICK reports, homosexual slurs are
a favourite because they hurt most.THERE can be no greater...
EDITION: 1
`Words will never hurt me' goes the old schoolyard rhyme. They do
of course, and, as CHRISTOPHER BANTICK reports, homosexual slurs are
a favourite because they hurt most.THERE can be no greater schoolyard
insult than to call someone ``poofter'', ``faggot'' or any other homosexual
slur.
That's the opinion of David Plummer, associate professor in community
and public health at the University of New England.
Dr Plummer's research findings were submitted earlier this month
to a federal parliamentary enquiry into boys and education. His findings
square with research reported in The Mercury in April last year.
The federal enquiry, originally set up in early 2000 by the federal
schools minister David Kemp, received a disquieting submission last
April that said boys feared being called gay, and as a consequence
were reluctant to participate in English classes.
English is perceived as a feminised subject and for a boy to be seen
to be doing well at it immediately singles him out.
These deductions were part of the written submission by Dealkin University
academic, Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli, who said: ``One of the reasons
for falling literacy standards among boys was that many were scared
to participate in class for fear of being called a fag. Boys resist
reading and writing because they are so aware of the broader social
and classroom monitoring by their peers.''
Although Dr Plummer's findings this month reflect the April 2000
submissions to the parliamentary enquiry, there is one distinct difference.
He says: ``Homophobic words, like poofter and faggot, generally enter
boys' talk during mid-primary school. Initially these words do not
carry sexual connotations, but neither are they meaningless nor randomly
employed.''
What is abundantly plain from the submissions already before the
parliamentary enquiry is that to be called gay at school sets in train
circumstances that can have dire consequences on academic performance
and social progress.
The school pecking order can be brutal system of ranking individuals.
Children can be quickly marginalised by a name that has no basis in
fact but is used as an insult. Moreover, it is not just boys who use
the term gay or poofter with the intention of hurting someone.
Machismo is often the sole defining aspect of what makes boys acceptable
to girls. A girl who is associated with someone called a fag is likely
to come in for criticism herself. The school yard pariahs are boys
labelled gay. They seldom have friends and quickly become isolated.
In one sense, it is easy to see why boys call others poofters. It
is a subtle and effective form of bullying. It is all the more successful
if the victim responds with denial and in so doing increases the likelihood
of further comment. But there is another side as to why boys -- and
it is boys in the overwhelming majority who do this -- use sexuality
as a term of abuse.
Michael Carr-Greg, an adolescent psychologist at the Albert Road
Centre for Health in Melbourne, says boys who feel alienated by society
can be ``incredibly homophobic and threatened by anyone who is different.
They cover themselves in this kind of hyper-masculine contemporary
male identity, which is the black T-shirt, and the fairly loud, aggressive
rock music''.
But not all boys -- particularly not those in primary school -- who
use terms like faggot as a verbal assault fit into the profile Carr-
Gregg gives. Plummer discovered that it was enough for a boy to not
conform to the peer-group culture to be called a poofter. It had,
he said, ``nothing to do with sexual practice''.
Just how pervasive and varied homophobic terms of abuse can be in
the schoolyard is evident in Kidspeak: A Dictionary of Australian
Children's Words, Expressions and Games, by June Factor. This revealing
and important book published by Melbourne University Press late last
year, chronicles the schoolyard terms mainly primary-school children
use in every-day speech.
Under ``poofter'' and its derivatives, there are five separate entries.
All are highly derogatory. For ``fag'' or ``faggot'', there are also
five. None is complimentary. For ``gay'', another six entries show
the extent and variety of abusive terms used to single out individuals.
These are all expressions in daily currency in the playgrounds from
Hobart to Broome.
What the research submitted to the parliamentary enquiry has shown
is where homophobic terms are used more frequently. It is not in the
classroom, but the change rooms, toilet blocks and sports grounds
and secluded locations around the school.
No solutions as to how to deal with this have come forth. To reduce
homophobia amongst boys, individual school cultures will need to change
to reflect a greater tolerance in social attitudes to gays. This,
at least in the schoolyard, appears
to be some way off.
Author not available, `Words
will never hurt me' goes the old schoolyard rhyme. They do of course, and,
as CHRISTOPHER BANTICK reports, homosexual slurs are a favourite because
they hurt most.THERE can be no greater.... , The Mercury (Tasmania, Australia),
03-15-2001, pp 020.