It didn't take long for the room to realize that I was looking for answers to very particular questions, but again these are people who have known me for many months if not several years. My original interviewee's schedule and my own didn't match up in a way that would allow for a "guided conversation" and I was reluctant to go the route of a cyber-interview. Ultimately, I choose to turn my (fairly) normal Saturday night into a sociological journey into our collective high school experiences surrounding the “fag specter.” My focus during the conversation was on Joe Messa and this summary will reflect that focus, but throughout the evening I found interesting experiences coming not only from Joe but from others present that evening, including my partner Leo Goodson and his best friend ( and Joe's boyfriend) Mathew Parks.Joe's experience throughout high school and within his own peer group would be best reflected as a combination of River High's Gay-Straight Alliance and the drama department where the play and gender bending have taken on new meanings not only for the people involved but for the wider network. of high school in general. Being part of the "geek and artsy" group of any kind at his high school was seen not so much as an expression of the person but as an "artistic expression" in general. Perhaps it was this behavior that helped Joe escape the “specter of the faggot,” as Pascoe describes it. It must be said that on the whole Joe is not easily identifiable as either feminine or gay – the two main uses of the word “faggot”, but as our conversation continued we realized that this might go beyond sexuality or even sexuality. gender expression. Almost all of our experiences were unique but contained some surprising sim...... middle of paper ......ain reflects the dominance/passivity relationship found within the male/female dichotomy. Our community, as open-minded as we try to be, finds itself conforming to the hegemonic ideologies of the larger society to which we wish to be found equal by assimilating the ideals of the masculine and feminine along with the inevitable power plays involved – this truly shows the power hidden place of patriarchy. Basically, we all agreed that it was only loosely related to homophobia and had found a more stable and divisive place within the male/female or male/female dichotomy. My last question of the evening was this: “Should we, as a community, try to reclaim the word “faggot?” I think Joe hit the nail on the head when he said, “It may be too early to reclaim the word, and given its new place in the patriarchy, it should probably just fall into the history annuals"..”