Preschool, dress-up, adult fears, and pregnant boys

Hi everyone! I have a brand new hot-off-the-presses, so-hot-it’s-only-online-first-right-now publication! This comes out of my multi-year ethnography of preschool, and develops one themes and ideas I’ve talked about in a few lectures up until now. Here’s the abstract:

This article presents analyses from an ethnographic study of a rural preschool and the pretend play occurring there. While many studies in childhood have sought to understand children’s play from the perspective of the child player, these analyses focus on understanding adult constructions through the children’s play. By focusing on children’s pretend play and adult reactions to it, this article seeks to explore children’s play as a lens for understanding the tensions between social constructions of “good” adults and “proper” children.

And link to the whole thing, so you can read about gender, childhood and ontological insecurity. For those of you following the saga of The Pregnant Boys, they’re in this one too.