Boys as Sexy Bodies

Abstract

How might we understand young men’s sexual embodiment at school? This article is concerned with the body as a site for the intersection of masculinities and sexualities at school. In a bid to contribute to existing narrative analyses of young men’s sexualities in educational contexts, this research employs visual methods in order to “picture” these intersections. Findings are drawn from an exploratory study in two secondary schools, where photo diaries and photo elicitation were undertaken with twenty-two students aged sixteen to eighteen years. It is argued that, the idea of boys as “sexy bodies,” that is, bodies that are experienced and viewed as sexual, is missing. This omission occurs in two ways; as a focus for school-based research and as an understanding of young men’s schooled experience. Through an analysis of enfleshed bodies captured by photo methods, the ways in which male sexuality is corporeally manifested as active, desiring, heteronormative and “sexy” are explored.