Fazendo Género na Escola: uma Análise Performativa da Negociação do Género entre Jovens (Doing Gender in School: a Performative Analysis of the Negotiation of Gender among Young People)

In Portugal, we have not yet seen widespread theoretical and empirical examination of gender from a performative perspective, interrogating the ways in which gendered differences, similarities and inequalities are produced and negotiated on an ongoing, daily basis in a range of contexts of interaction. With this article, I aim to contribute to the development of such research through a discussion of an ethnography carried out with young people in a school in Lisbon. Drawing on two case-studies (management of access to playground space and the role of heteronormativity and homophobia in the regulation of masculinities), I argue that a performative approach is a useful and pertinent tool for analysis of gender issues and for critical examination of the analytical models most often used to study gender in current mainstream Portuguese sociological research.