Stylizing Standard Dutch by Moroccan boys in Antwerp

This article examines ethnographic data that show Belgian adolescents of Moroccan descent stylizing Standard Dutch. Analysis addresses the importance of this variety in Belgian-Flemish society and in the school these boys attended, and shows how in interviews with Moroccan boys the hegemonic status of this variety is generally accepted. In practice however, Moroccan boys associated Standard Dutch with unpleasant asymmetrical frameworks and turn-allocating authorities, and played around with this variety in such a way that it put a spoke in the wheel at those moments when Moroccan boys felt they entered a situation of increased accountability. The article shows how stylizing Standard Dutch is part of wider practice Moroccan boys refer to as doing ridiculous, with which they engaged with, and sometimes temporarily resisted, perceived hegemonic structures around them.