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The online version of this article can be found at: 

DOI: 10.1177/1363460706060719 2006 9: 107Sexualities 

Richard Taulke-Johnsonand Out of Schools

InQueer?; Youth and Sexualities: Pleasure, Subversion, and InsubordinationA Radical Rethinking of Sexuality and Schooling: Status Quo or Status

 

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7/23/2019 Review: A Radical Rethinking of Sexuality and Schooling: Status Quo or Status Queer?

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Richard Taulke-Johnson

Cardiff University, Wales 

Eric Rofes, A Radical Rethinking of Sexuality and Schooling: Status Quo or

Status Queer? Lanham, MD, USA: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. 169 pp.ISBN 0-7425-4195-9 $22.95.

Mary Louise Rasmussen, Eric Rofes and Susan Talburt (eds), Youth and 

Sexualities: Pleasure, Subversion, and Insubordination In and Out of Schools.New York, USA: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.250 pp. ISBN 1-4039-6488-2$22.95.

Both books examine the complex issues surrounding sexuality, schoolingand, more broadly, education, arguing for a radical rethinking of funda-mental views and assumptions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender(LGBT) and gender non-conforming youth. They aim, through differentapproaches and with differing degrees of success, to radically reinterpretcontemporary discourses of homosexuality, reframing and challengingdominant conceptions of LGBT youth as pathologized and victimized.

Proposing that LGBT identity is on some level a choice or decision toundermine and resist traditional gender roles, Rofes draws upon his experi-ence of being an openly gay teacher in advocating a shift in the perceptionof LGBT youth from that of martyrs, targets and passive victims in need of adult intervention and protection. He argues that this martyr-target-victimmodel has informed educational policy, but that LGBTs should no longerbe defined purely through hatred, victimization, heterosexism and homo-phobia. This population should instead be coneptualized as daring,powerful, courageous and brave agents, willingly facing the consequences

of rebelling against societal heterosexual expectations, and living with thestruggle and conflict between the desire for societal assimilation and the

 wish to maintain queer culture integrity.Drawing from an eclectic range of approaches and perspectives,

Rasmussen, Rofes and Talburt also seek to provide a fuller, rounder repre-sentation of LGBT youth and the complexities of their lived experience(with an emphasis on pleasure and agency) than the martyr-target-victimmodel and traditional anti-homophobic analyses provide.

Review Article

Sexualities Copyright © 2006 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi)Vol 9(1): 107–110 DOI: 10.1177/1363460706060719

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successful in presenting genealogy and her four angles of scrutiny in a way that can be understood by the layperson in the field.

Such theoretical sophistication is also present in Chapter 6, with

reference to Foucauldian dividing practices and heterophobias. Mary Louise Rasmussen looks at the regulation of sexulalities in school spaces,the production of ‘safe spaces’ and ‘queer spaces’ in the high-schoolenvironment, and the spatial dividing practices of LGBT-only schools. Of particular interest is the story of Krystal Bennett, an openly gay femalestudent being elected prom king at a high school in Washington, andRasmussen’s account of how this subversive spatial act disturbed a sitemeant to reinforce discourses of heteronormalization.

Chapter 8 is arguably the most absorbing and fascinating in the book.Mollie Blackburn discusses a borderland discourse predominantly used by queer black youth, which she terms ‘Gaybonics’, and details how thisdiscourse is employed by members of a queer youth centre to empowerthemselves, facilitate identity and intimacy, elicit pleasure, and subvertand retaliate against hegemonic oppression of homophobia, racism andageism. Blackburn concludes there is a need for teachers to understandthat there is not just a single discourse of power, and to see how peopleemploy language to empower themselves and assume agency.

It is unfortunate that alongside such gems there are chapters inRasmussen et al. that are lost amongst theoretical minutiae. Chapter 1

(ironically entitled ‘Intelligibility and Narrating Queer Youth’ by SusanTalburt), Chapter 5 (‘Between Sexuality and Narrative: On the Languageof Sex Education’ by Jen Gilbert) and Chapter 10 (‘Melancholy and theProductive Negotiations of Power in Sissy Boy Experience’ by DavidMcInnes) are particularly confusing, sprawling, disjointed, unfocused andunclear in their aims or the points they wish to make.

 Also, although the scope and diversity of the approaches present in thisbook should be lauded, there are chapters that are too specific, narrow infocus, and ‘half-baked’. For example, Chapter 3 by Jackie M. Blount and

Sine Anahita is a historical analysis of the experiences and relationshipbetween LGBT schoolworkers and LGBT youth in US schools, discussingthe interplay, impact and effects the conditions for one group has on theother. Although a well-researched and interesting chapter, one is leftthinking ‘so what?’ The conditions and experiences of LGBT youth andschoolworkers may be entwined and affect each other, but there is nodiscussion on the nature or dynamics of their relationship, nor any mention of the implications this has for either group.

Similarly, Chapter 7 by Andrea Coleman, Mary Ehrenworth and Nancy 

Lesko examines the narratives and discourses in the film Scouts Honour (2001) about Steve Cozza, founder of the Scouting For All campaign

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 which challenges the scout movement’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ homopho-bic policy. This chapter is perhaps only of moderate interest to readersfrom countries where the scouting movement is not as pervasive, patriotic

or influential as in the US.Criticisms can also be levelled at Rofes’ book, especially concerning hisstandpoint that nonconformity to traditional and expected gender roles,

 values and pursuits is a choice or decision. His offhand dismissal of biologi-cal and genetic explanations, and the noticeable lack of any persuasivediscussion or evidence to substantiate his own position severely diminisheshis argument.

One could also criticize and question Rofes’ book’s ‘Americaness’ andthe lack of discussion of the educational systems in (and therefore itsrelevance to) non-US countries, whereas the book by Rasmussen et al.has a more international perspective with articles from the US, UK and

 Australia. Although Rofes’ work lacks the scope and diversity of per-spectives of the other book, this is compensated by Rofes’ vast experienceof intimacy and engagement with queer youth in his role of teacher, andhis accessible and engaging prose, which makes his work so interestingand arresting.

Other criticisms are the frankness with which Rofes discusses his sexualidentity (although this is done in a non-sensationalist way it does occasion-ally make for uncomfortable reading); the lack of concrete suggestions as

to how to operationalize the fundamental sweeping changes of analyticalthought promoted and suggested throughout the book; and the omissionof a conclusion drawing the many threads of his argument together.

However, the major criticism that can be levelled at both books, andone which Rasmussen et al. freely acknowledge, is the highly noticeablelack of discussion on bisexual or transgender identities, and on femininity and lesbian issues. The paucity of attention and focus afforded to thesesubjects weakens the books’ relevance and application to all queer youth.

Nonetheless, despite such shortcomings, both books are highly original

and provocative. Whether looking at LGBT youth through the mainly theoretical accounts and diverse approaches of Rasmussen et al., orthrough the more personal and intimate narrative of Rofes, it is highly refreshing to view this population outside a persecution narrative.

 Although neither book is wholly successful in execution, both should behighly praised for reframing and conceptualizing LGBT youth in termsother than as passive victims.

Sexualities 9(1)

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