‘We haven’t even been able to talk!’: gender norms and masculinity exams in representations of sexuality in Spanish primary schools

Abstract

Through language, children participate actively in the construction of meanings around sexuality, which is governed unequally according to gender. This article examines the articulation of the social constructions of sexuality and gender with the pictorial and narrative representations of boys and girls from 9 to 11 years of age from four public schools in Barcelona province in the 2020–2021 school year. We used participatory methods, including drawing activities and focus groups. The findings suggest that hegemonic social constructions of masculinity and femininity guide children’s practices and narratives about sexuality, (re)producing differences between ‘boys’ and ‘girls’. The desire to fit into these hegemonic models puts pressure on boys to make their genitalia and bodies visible, and talk about sexuality through joking, while female genitalia are rendered invisible, and girls have calm discussions about sexuality. The article shows how children navigate, negotiate, or resist such governmentality and the inequalities that result.