Gendered Make-up

This article summarizes a recently completed study of gender in an urban kindergarten classroom in the USA. Using a feminist post-structuralist framework to analyze gender, this qualitative study examined how 5 and 6 year-old students socially constructed themselves as gendered beings through the heterosexual matrix. By documenting and analyzing students' talk, actions, drawings, and writings, this investigation explored how students regulated the gendered social order of the classroom through their understandings of gender norms and ideals. Using critical discourse analysis, six gender discourses emerged, uncovering the heterosexual matrix. One of those gender discourses, labeled ‘make-up,’ is briefly discussed.