Abstract:
This study analyzes the construction of gender identity among adolescent girls considering its performative dimension. The ethnographic research was conducted at a public middle school in Salvador, Brazil. The discursive construction of differences, similarities and inequalities among categories of girl is one of the ways gender is (re)constructed and negotiated in daily interactions. Within the context of the moral regulation exercised by peers, the article presents how each subject position assimilates, contests and resignifies behaviors and characteristics socially considered to be feminine and masculine. In a continuum of conformities and subversions, girls considered to be “normal”, “forward” or “evolved” exhibit traces of cultural permanence and change, revealing the markedly contradictory heterogeneity of the constitution of gender identities.
Keywords:
Gender; Sexuality; Performativity; Categorization