Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
absolutelynobodyaround.…Thisissortofanacceptedthingthatlikethisisaplacethat
isoutsideofschool,sotherulesofschooldon'treallyapplyasmuchthere.”Andthebe-
haviorwithin thespace, bystudents andthecoaches, seemed todrawfromstereotypical
masculine values where, as Steve (SR) explained, “If you are soft, you just won't—yea,
you'll just get eaten alive.”
Within a sports context, the boys at Rockport taught each other how to be masculine,
how to be “real” men, through more physical and aggressive forms of bullying. Steve
(SR) described the expectations placed on freshmen by seniors to embody toughness,
emotional stoicism, aggression, and respect for hierarchy. John (SR) explained:
When I was a freshman what they did was they took us all into this room with
the lights out, the TV was on static, the alarm clock was beeping and we had to
sit in the room and do nothing and wait our turn and go to another room. They
took freshmen one by one and shaved their heads and told them to come back
and tell the rest how like, “oh my god it is so terrible.” I remember there was a
senior who came into the room and like we were getting out of hand because we
were talking and it was just like we had to sit still and so he made us sit on the
bed and hold hands. And when he got really pissed off he took the alarm clock,
ripped it out of the wall, and threw it into the wall and left a dent.
We heard stories of hazing and other forms of bullying conducted throughout Rock-
port's sports program including crew, wrestling, soccer, and lacrosse. However, the ath-
leteswerenottheonlygroupatRockportendorsingthesetraditions.Forexample,oneof
thefacultymembersandalsothewrestlingcoachexplainedthatinmale-orientedspaces
like Rock-port, “there is a certain pecking order, there is a dominance that needs to be
established. It's a pack mentality and everybody has to seek their own level.… I don't
think I would really construe [it] as bullying as much as trying to establish a normal or-
der of things.”
Steve (SR) told us a story of his coach (also an administrator) who, along with
the older students, helped to uphold and reaffirm the socially constructed, hierarchical
power that older students yielded over the younger students, despite complaints by par-
entsandresistancebyfreshmen.Hisstorytookplaceduringoneoftheathleticbustrips:
Whenever the bus stops the seniors race to get out first. So the seniors try to get
offfirstandthefreshmenalwayshavetowaittogetofflast,andthesophomores
get off second last. So the seniors, as they are walking down [the isle] hit the
freshmen and like it's bad, it's really bad.
