Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
What one boy described as the “dog-eat-dog” elements in the boy culture
provide ample opportunities to learn that survival and success do not go to the
weak but to the strong, a philosophy of life well suited to managing power rela-
tions in the financial and business world. (154)
New (2001) similarly linked traditional representations of masculinity with the re-
production of privilege, “The social construction of such constricted [masculine] selves
does indeed produce subjects who can function well in capitalistic, patriarchal organiz-
ations” (740).
We found in our data that hegemonic values were entrenched within the institution
and reinforced systemically by the entire Rockport community, often through broadly
definedversionofbullying.Mike(AD)
also
impliedarelationshipbetweeneliteschool-
ingandaggressionatRockport:“Wearesettingyouuptobeanelitememberofsociety,
which means recognizing this competition, which means recognizing that you've got
to try and get advantages.” He explained further, “You are taking kids from incredibly
competitive, high driven families and you are putting them together.” It is an environ-
ment, he argued, that makes eliminating bullying very difficult, “To say that you are
going to get those kids to stop snapping at, competing with, and bullying or teasing
and ridiculing each other is never going to happen.” Mike (AD) connected this with
the parents' belief system, “I mean a lot of these families are firm believers in capital-
ism, it's sinking or swimming. It's about competition; it's about crushing the other guy.”
Indeed, as part of Rockport's power elite education, teaching hegemonic masculinity
that includes giving and enduring aggression may serve students well within our viol-
ent and hierarchical neoliberal economy. If so, it reveals bullying at Rockport not as an
unwanted and deviant break from the norm by some rogue students but instead as an
expression of the “normal” masculine culture as part of privileged training.
How boys' masculinities are performed, directed, and limited in schools like Rock-
port is an important research question to ask because it is fundamental to the establish-
ment and maintenance of hegemony. Mills (1956), as one of the first scholars to study
thepowerelite, notedthatmostvitalaspects ofprepschoolarenotlocated intheformal
curriculum but “in a dozen other places, some of them queer places indeed: in the re-
lations between boys and faculty; in who the boys are and where they come from; in a
Gothic chapel or a shiny new gymnasium” (65). His latter reference to a chapel or gym-
nasium—in other words, what meanings are taken from and conveyed in the experience
of space—deserves deeper consideration as it pertains to privilege. Space can produce
and communicate power and help define the meaning of social relationships (Creswell
2004). Rockport's beautifully manicured and tree-lined campus, with well-funded ath-
letic facilities, old architecture, and a central location in a prestigious zip code projects
to the students, parents, and passersby a sign of wealth, power, and importance.
