James W. Messerschmidt: Gender, heterosexuality, and youth violence: The struggle for recognition

Youth violence has received a lot of attention in the last few decades, especially in the case of young male delinquents. Recent school shootings and teen suicides have led scholars as well as mainstream media to consider bullying as a serious issue, one that has to be integrated into an analysis of reactive youth violence. In his new book, Gender, heterosexuality, and youth violence, James Messerschmidt explores the life history of six adolescents who were once victims of school bullying and addresses the relationship between embodied gendered/sexual social practices and violent behaviors among youth. The author argues that localized construction of (hetero)sexuality and masculinity/femininity played a major role in his subjects’ reflexive decision to engage in or avoid reactive violence against others. More specifically, he examines how interactions with others within particular social contexts shape one’s sense of gendered/sexual self, and how this localized hierarchical gender/sexual status is linked to one’s violent (or nonviolent) behavior. …