High school is hard. After surviving a four-year war of raging hormones, sorting through conflicting identities, and searching for a place to fit in, it is a wonder anyone would want to go back. In Dude, You’re a Fag, that is exactly what author C. J. Pascoe does: Pascoe goes back to high school to conduct 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork in a California high school, dubbed “River High,” in order to investigate masculinity and sexuality among high school students.

This book clearly illustrates the institutionalized sexism and distorted and detrimental formations of masculinity within a typical American high school. Pascoe's book, though its findings are rather grim, is very readable; this is both an advantage and a deficiency. The book's accessibility increases the range of its audience and the exposure to these issues that this accessibility facilitates is, of course, a good thing. Alternatively, the lack of theoretical investigation and argument leaves us with the production of questions rather than their analysis. Theory here is used as a slightly awkward supplement in a book that speaks plainly to shocking effect. Overall, this is an important book exploring notions of adolescent gender roles and sexuality within education that confronts major issues which need to be addressed, and hopefully this work will open a path for future investigations of the subject. ( )

Insightful. Fair warning, though--as with so much if social anthropology, sometimes she uses terms without an acknowledgement of the complicated history those terms have. Powerful work. HIGHLY recommended. ( )

After class discussion, I went back and read this book. I found it just as interesting the second time reading it. I would recommend this book for anyone trying to understand the thought processes (or lack there of) of high school boys. This book explains how the patriarchal society of the United States is reinforced through high school rituals. ( )