Peer Group Additional Questions
I believe that fear is only one of the factors leading to the deployment of the “fag” slur to defend masculinity. I feel that it is more of a male cultural phase. In this phase, teenage boys feel the need to protect what they deem masculine through insulting others that seem different. Fear is definitely an important dynamic to consider because it could explain the philosophy of one teenage boy insulting the other first, in order to seem more masculine. However, according to Pascoe’s research, the values that the term fag express include symptoms of fear for what is not considered masculine. Insulting other boys because of their physical appearance and other characteristics may seem improper for adults, but for the teenagers, it is a way of creating an identity. They become bullies as a way of beating anxious behavior. Insulting others is a way of reassuring themselves that they fit their own descriptions of what masculinity is all about.
