“Don’t be such a faggot, walk like a man” Expression of sexual violence among engineering students

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present a reflection about the relevance of rethinking the construction of otherness through sexual violence, about how the exclusion of others becomes a practice that provides the basis for the fiction of a normal self in the everyday production of male individuals and, particularly, about the meaning of homophobic and misogynous expressions for students at the school of engineering at the BUAP [Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla] as stabilizing mechanisms for the construction of themselves and otherness. Thus, the author proposes an ethnographic analysis associated with experiences, testimonials, and practices of male students when a movement, a behavior, a body, or an individual strays from established standards. Therefore, the construction of a normal male-self is aimed at a mindset based on the exclusion of homosexuality, femininity, and women. Consequently, sexual violence sets up homophobia and misogyny as mechanisms that provide stability to a heteronormative order and, at the same time, become founding practices for the construction of otherness that is regulated, monitored and, if necessary, punished.