(Long pause): what does silence say about boys’ reflexivity?

Abstract

Silence is easily overlooked or dismissed as simply a gap in communication. However, silence is ripe with meaning. In this article, we explore the silences and hesitations in a group of high-school boys’ responses to questions about gender and consider their import to understanding men’s and boys’ reflexivity. We note that these silences are telling about resistance, unintelligibility, discomfort, and silencing. Significantly, we contrast these silences with the emotional openness displayed by the boys when engaged in more implicitly gendered topics of conversation. This contrast highlights the tensions for these boys as they struggle to articulate and define their experiences in relation to broader patterns of gender politics. We conclude by exploring the implications of our findings for educators, researchers, and boys and men themselves.