Youthful Stories of Normality and Difference

Abstract

In recent decades a critical sociology and politics of difference has been at the forefront of the study of normality. Key aims of this are to contest hierarchies of privilege and to question appeals to sameness as the basis for inclusion. Analysing data from two studies carried out in the north east of England (one with disabled youths and one with lesbian and gay youths), this article responds to this work by examining young people’s negotiations of ableist and heteronormative constructions of normality. The article shows how the young people sought to disrupt the privileges of this normality whilst also claiming a sense of ‘likeness’ to others. The article concludes by discussing the need to consider the use of a language of likeness and inclusion in young people’s everyday politics of belonging.