Gender Play : Girls and Boys in School
ISBN: 9780813556543
Platform/Publisher: EBSCO eBooks / Rutgers University Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: limited; Download: limited
Subjects: EDUCATION / Philosophy Theory & Social Aspects;

Thorne, a professor of sociology at the University of Southern California, offers her insightful observations of elementary school students in class and at play. Though, as she admits, her status as an adult and an observer may have affected what happened around her, Thorne presents a fascinating account of how children divide themselves--and how others divide them--along gender lines. Breaking students into teams for contests and the eternal game of ``cooties'' (a contamination attributed more often to girls than boys) reveal much about the microcosm that these students inhabit, and an extensive look at the tomboy, both in literature and in life, compares her ambiguity (sometimes an insult, sometimes a compliment) to the negative attitudes often elicited by gender-crossing in the other direction. Thorne argues convincingly against the theories of scholars like Deborah Tannen and Carol Gilligan that boys and girls have different ``cultures,'' and she attempts to discourage ``gender antagonism.'' A final section offers concrete steps for teachers to take in forming the attitudes--about gender and other topics--of coming generations. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Barrie Thorne is a Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. She is a co-editor, with Barbara Laslett, of Feminist Sociology: Life Histories of a Movement , also published by Rutgers University Press.

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