%0 Journal Article
%T Brilliant or Bad: The Gendered Social Construction of Exceptionalism in Early Adolescence
%A Michela Musto
%J American Sociological Review
%@ 1939-8271
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0003122419837567
%X From kindergarten through college, students perceive boys as more intelligent than girls, yet few sociological studies have identified how school processes shape students¡¯ gender status beliefs. Drawing on 2.5 years of longitudinal ethnography and 196 interviews conducted at a racially diverse, public middle school in Los Angeles, this article demonstrates how educators¡¯ differential regulation of boys¡¯ rule-breaking by course level contributed to gender-based differences in students¡¯ perceptions of intelligence. In higher-level courses¡ªwhere affluent, White, and Asian American students were overrepresented¡ªeducators tolerated 6th-grade boys¡¯ rule-breaking, such that boys challenged girls¡¯ opinions and monopolized classroom conversations. By 8th grade, students perceived higher-level boys as more exceptionally intelligent than girls. However, in lower-level courses¡ªwhere non-affluent Latinx students were overrepresented¡ªeducators penalized 6th-grade boys¡¯ rule-breaking, such that boys disengaged from classroom conversations. By 8th grade, lower-level students perceived girls as smarter than boys, but not exceptional. This article also demonstrates how race intersected with gender when shaping students¡¯ perceptions of intelligence, with students associating the most superlatives with affluent White boys¡¯ capabilities. Through this analysis, I develop a new theoretical understanding of how school processes contribute to the gendered social construction of exceptionalism and reproduce social inequalities in early adolescence
%K gender
%K education
%K children and youth
%K race and ethnicity
%K social inequalities
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0003122419837567