Gender Play
Boys and Girls in School

Barrie Thorne (Author), Raewyn Connell (Introduction by), Michael A. Messner (Introduction by), C.J. Pascoe (Afterword by)

9781978838253

Paperback / softback, published 13 September 2024

270 pages, NA
20.3 x 13.2 x 2 cm, 0.313 kg

“This anniversary edition is a reminder of why Thorne's book is a classic in the fields of childhood studies, education, and feminist scholarship, one which treats kids and their play with the seriousness they deserve. Beautiful reflections from Michael Messner, Raewyn Connell, and CJ Pascoe make plain that we should listen closely to kids and all the lessons the book has to offer.” - Freeden Blume Oeur, author of Black Boys Apart: Racial Uplift and Respectability in All-Male Public Schools

When it first appeared in 1993, Barrie Thorne’s Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School became an instant classic in the budding fields of feminist sociology and childhood studies. Through detailed first-hand observations of fourth and fifth graders at play, she investigated questions like: Why do girls and boys tend to self-segregate in the schoolyard? What can playful teasing and ritualized games like “cooties” and “chase and kiss” teach us about how children perform gendered identities? And how do children articulate their own conceptions of gender, distinct from those proscribed by the adult world?
 
A detailed and perceptive ethnography told with compassion and humor, Gender Play immerses readers in the everyday lives of a group of working-class children to examine the social interactions that shape their gender identities.  This new Rutgers Classic edition of Gender Play contains an introduction from leading sociologists of gender Michael A. Messner and Raewyn Connell that places Thorne’s innovative research in historical context. It also includes a new afterword by one of Thorne’s own students, acclaimed sociologist C.J. Pascoe, reflecting on both the lasting influence of Thorne’s work and the ways that American children’s understandings of gender have shifted in the past thirty years.

Acknowledgments
Introduction by Raewyn Connell and Michael A. Messner
1 Children and Gender
2 Learning from Kids
3 Boys and Girls Together . . . But Mostly Apart
4 Gender Separation: Why and How
5 Creating a Sense of “
Opposite Sides”

6 Do Girls and Boys Have Different Cultures?
7 Crossing the Gender Divide
8 Lip Gloss and “
Goin’
With”
: Becoming Teens
9 Lessons for Adults
Afterword by C. J. Pascoe
Notes
References
Index