Unexpected Bodies and Pleasures: Sexuality and Gender in Schools

In this article, I argue that schools are public spaces for the public they serve--the students of that school. Access to public space and the public forum is necessary for diverse groups to create justice in a pluralistic society (Jacobs, 1961; Young, 1990). This participatory action research project examined the language and behaviors that circulate in schools about sexuality and gender, and visualized the ways those discourses manifested in the spaces of schools and impacted bodies. To this end, I used a mapping exercise to allow the youth researchers to show how discourses of sexuality and gender appeared in their school setting and the ways they resisted the limitations of dominant gender and sexuality identities. Three major themes emerged upon describing and discussing the maps: school spaces are sexualized as well as gendered, spaces where sexuality and gender can be spoken allow students to examine their desires and pleasures, and adults can create a public forum for justice about sexuality and gender identity. Spatial studies such as this one give researchers access to new understandings of LGBTQ+ youth use of embodied and discursive resources to create spaces in schools in which to explore their identities and pleasures.