Boys at gender-play inside the muscular Christian ideal

Article

McDonald, Janet. 2007. "Boys at gender-play inside the muscular Christian ideal." Boyhood Studies. 1 (1), pp. 84-94.
Article Title

Boys at gender-play inside the muscular Christian ideal

ERA Journal ID36149
Article CategoryArticle
Authors
AuthorMcDonald, Janet
Journal TitleBoyhood Studies
Thymos: journal of boyhood studies
Journal Citation1 (1), pp. 84-94
Number of Pages11
Year2007
Place of PublicationNew York, USA
ISSN1872-4329
1931-9045
Web Address (URL)http://www.mensstudies.com/content/f276323575u55625/?p=c2187629a15049169a2efdc49e4f3edb&pi=4
Abstract

[Abstract]: In elite boys' schools there is a level of anxiety about the perceived place of the curricular subject drama and how it might interact or interfere with the ironclad essentialist and homogenous masculinity promoted by elite all-boys' schools. The feminization of the drama and the suspicion of males who 'do drama' create a duplicitous tension for boys who take the subject as they walk the gendered tightrope between the expected public display of the 'muscular Christian' and the tantalizing 'drama faggot'. This paper offers some reflections about observations on and interviews with boys who 'do drama' inside the male-only worlds of the Great Public School (GPS) of Brisbane, Australia. In these schools I observed masculinities were constantly disrupted (perhaps uniquely) in the drama classroom and explored by male drama teachers who provided a space in which to playfully interrogate the 'muscular Christian ideal' of a boys' school.

Keywordsdrama, elite boys' schools, colonial masculinity, performativity, masculinized, feminized, school curricula, muscular Christian
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020360403. Drama, theatre and performance studies
390101. Creative arts, media and communication curriculum and pedagogy
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Byline AffiliationsSchool of Creative Arts
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