Sports code identification
5.2. Narrative analysis findings
5.2.1. Male peer groups and social imperatives
The content analysis and interview data suggested that for participants from both school contexts, male peer groups were identified as important sites for identity construction.
This was largely achieved through talk about rather than the enactment of a hegemonic standard to prove 'acceptable' masculinity. Five narratives from the data set (Nl to N5) illustrate this process of accomplished talk in the peer group.
In the male peer group, masculinities were configured around a displayed 'conversational toughness'; an emphasis of'doing' over 'being'; emphasised hegemonic standards in groups and the need to 'prove' masculinity to the male peer group. Hegemonic standards for black participants in both settings tended to be organised around two competing
imperatives for maturity, one imparting a meaning of unrestraint to peer social groups and the other suggesting an imperative to 'join' with peers through emerging 'black' music styles and fashions.
For Aslaam, a Muslim boy from School A (Nl), peer group conversation centred on a 'witty' repartee with others in the group that involved 'classing' or pseudo-hostility. It was the capacity to 'click' with the group and 'tell him back' that existed as inclusion criteria in the peer group at school. Aslaam established a significant distance between his break time group and 'some of the white guys', who were defined as the boys who 'just start punching each other all the time'. Rather than displays of physicality, the alternative standard suggested by Aslaam was a conversational toughness and alertness. The
speaking position shifted as Aslaam assumed heterodiegetic perspectives in relation to the peer group narrative. The speaking positions included that of the group in relation to the 'othered' white boys; his own position as a commentator on his peer group and that of a nonspecific outsider wishing to join the group in an imaginary scenario. The agency of the group to control its boundaries was admitted and denied at points in the narrative. At one point it 'just happened' that the group would 'click' in the way it did, and at others, the group assumed a more defined position in relation to its identity as having certain 'kinds' of people, and a less stated link with the playing of indoor soccer as an 'entrance ticket' to the group.
From School B, Themba's peer group narrative (N2) took a collective intradiegetic perspective, speaking 'on behalf of his social group, the 'abafana' (Boys). The
unfolding of the story revealed a tension between conversational and action performances of masculinity. While in the orientation of the narrative, Themba's 'sitting and talking' with peers in the afternoons was an 'okay' way to let the 'time pass', the interpolation of actions into the narrative (prompted by a photograph of soccer team-mates) introduced a tension around a 'dangerous' stasis in 'just' sitting and talking. Soccer was then
positioned as an external constraint against the dangers of idle peer group conversation, linked to the 'bad things' such as smoking and stealing. This response may reflect an unconscious process in which passive 'being' is feared and unrestrained and active
'doing' is identified as control and prohibition. Mandla's narrative about socialising with peers in a township tavern (N3) suggested, like Themba's account, a fear of unrestraint and irresponsibility. Mandla's account revealed a tension between a subjectivity situated with 'playing games' and an imperative to discard these practices with increasing
maturity. As with Themba's narrative 'social idleness' with peers was ambivalently understood as both a threat to maturity and a context for displaying competency or experiencing belonging ('everybody's here'). Mandla presented an insider view but then shifted to an extradiegetic positioned outsider when introducing the core theme of
'staying with the crowd'. An imperative to be current with music trends was introduced as an alternatively voiced counter to the speaking position of'imperative maturity' from earlier in the narrative. The trope 'it's cool to like stay with the crowd' suggested that this alternative voice was identified with peer music styles of Hip Hop and Kwaito, creating alternative imperatives for the speaker to be 'cool' by having fun 'with the crowd'.
The narratives of Sandile (N4), Warren (N5) and Dane (N6) from School A converged on identifying powerful processes of social inclusion and exclusion which served to
maintain group hegemonic standards. These narratives pointed to a critical commentary emerging from the male peer group around physical features or any other markers of difference. This was signified by a similar trope which appeared in all three narratives as 'isolation', 'bringing down' or 'criticism'. For Warren, the process was not one of'true criticism' and was more about how the recipient was able to 'handle it' and not let it 'get' to him. Warren and Dane introduced similar tropes for how they or others had 'handled' criticism or isolation, these were to 'learn how to take it' or 'just get over it'. In all three, a core narrative emerged of the persons 'building up' their own acceptability within the group by 'bringing down' the individuals on the periphery. This suggested a process of projective identification in which boys on the periphery were marked with otherness. It was notable that these three narrators managed diegetic shifts in the narrative to account for both inside and outside perspectives of the group and the marginalised individual.
For the isolated protagonists in the narratives, coping styles varied - Warren's friend's verbal counter-attacks appeared to win peer approval, Sandile tried to balance the picture by allowing the group to 'lift' and 'bring down' his self-esteem, whereas Dane's
intradiegteic protagonist emphasised passivity of action with the phrase 'get over it'.