Stephen Frosh

This book was led to my by my son's preschool teatcher, following a remark on my part on how kids' pose for their classroom photos were much more heavily gendered for lower-income a minotiry kids (I live in Paris, France, in a mixed neighbourhood).

Although the research has been conducted a while ago, the results were indeed illuminating about male kids' behaviour and challenges in constructing their gender identity in a society that conveys mixed signals on the traditional elements on masculine identity.

A great feat of this book is to present what is first and foremost a research report in an emineltely readeable way, without sacrificing rigour in the description of the protocols. The authors are aware, and signal, places where their own subjectivity may have influenced the selection and reading of the interviews, and an extensive use of verbatims allows the reader to get a grasp of what was said by the children in their own words.

I also appreciated very much the fine balance that the authors manage to strike between a clear delineation of the social pressures the teenagers face, and the degree of agency the same teenagers deploy in response to these pressures.

All round, a very interesting resarch work that manages to be widely accessible.… (mehr)