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Masculinity Beyond the Metropolis
Masculinity Beyond the Metropolis explores spatially marginalized masculinities in diverse out-of-the-way places in 'developed' Western countries. The book challenges metro-centric notions of masculinity and globalization. Variously stigmatized and romanticized, places outside the city have been transformed by globalization. As traditional, place-based non-metropolitan expressions of masculinity confront more open, appealing and threatening identity possibilities, habit and history collide with the present. The ways in which such globalized collisions are resolved in young males' lives suggest new frameworks for thinking about masculinity. Through place-based global ethnographic studies of lived cultures of young men in peripheral places and media representations of such places, this book brings fresh insights to scholarship on youth, masculinity, place and space.
230 pages, ebook
First published June 20, 2006
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January 2, 2016
This book discusses two of the big themes in recent sociological research: masculinity and globalisation. Masculinity has become interesting for a number of reasons, often rather contradictory. For instance, there has been a movement to address boys’ failure at school – and this often starts off by saying the pendulum has swung too far in favour of girls, as if success at school was something like a seesaw, one in which if ‘girls’ are on the up swing, then boys must be going down. This view also assumes that boys and girls are simple undifferentiated groups where everyone in one of these groups must succeed or fail together. This book looks at masculinity in much the same way that we need to start looking at ‘whiteness’ when we talk about race. Not just to understand how privilege works, but also to understand the harms that are caused by these various types of ‘privileges’ and how these are changing with changes in society generally.
Globalisation is also quite a popular area of research, but it isn’t immediately clear what globalisation really means. In the main we think of it as a collapsing of space and time. For instance, a couple of weeks ago my daughters and I went to see a broadcast of Hamlet from a London theatre in a local Melbourne cinema. It was an odd experience, not least at the end when it wasn’t clear if people in the cinema would (or should) clap along with the audience in London, an audience that had no such doubts or hesitations. And while I am not at all saying that going along to a cinema in Carlton is an identical experience to going to a play in London, even if you are seeing much the same thing, it is still an interesting experience and one I would be more than happy to ‘make do’ with for all of those times when attending plays in London in any other way simply isn’t an option. This centripetal force – bringing all things together in ‘the centre’, where the centre is wherever you are – is a major idea behind globalisation.
This book, however, takes a interesting view of both masculinity and globalisation – not least because it looks at locations within Australia that are outside most Australians experience of Australia – in one of the world’s most urbanised nations, this book focuses on people who live ‘beyond the metropolis’ – that is, in small towns well outside the big cities most Australian live in. It makes the point that in such locations ‘globalisation’ hasn’t really made space and time contract or collapse in ways it is meant to have in larger cities, rather young people in particular in these places can feel just as isolated and distanced from ‘the world’ as it is possible to feel.
One of the towns discussed here is Coober Pedy – an Opal mining town in the middle of the desert. Here space is anything but contracted. The harshness of the local environment and the extreme distance to anywhere (literally anywhere) else makes concepts of the ‘metaphorical’ contraction of space all seem like wishful thinking. This is a place that imposes 'the local' on people.
Metaphors of space that are associated with globalisation are interesting here for other reasons too, particularly those closely associated with boys and with their view of how their lives progress. There is a discussion on maps, tours and in particular, aerial visions – that is, metaphors of space and pathways through space that allow boys to have some idea of how their lives may progress – and this is really about the possibility of self-efficacy. The problem is that with globalisation and particularly with the changes that are occurring in employment across the world, the jobs that once existed in these regions are fast disappearing. This means that only those boys with access to a kind of aerial vision are able of making out the pathways they ought to follow if they are to be successful. However, few of these boys have parents with the necessary skills to help them acquire such an aerial vision. These are people that have been let down by the education system for generations, often to the extent that they left school unable to read. People who despite often seeing the benefits that come from acquiring an education, are not in the least bit sure how to go about following that particular path or how to help when crossroads are met by their children. The problem is not merely one of not having the academic capital to be successful at school, although, clearly, this is a large part of the problem, but fundamentally it also involves the fact that the kinds of masculinities that are available and valued in these communities are masculinities that are associated with hard work, hard drinking, hard sports and so on – and these forms of masculinity are associated with lifestyles that are intimately bound to the past, bound up with the kinds of work that no longer exist or that is slowly dying out. Also, because these are frontier places, masculinity here is associated with independence and self-reliance. But if such Marlboro Man independence has always been a myth, it is ever more so now. The ‘work hard, play hard’ ideal as the only way to really be male actively undermines any hope of actually being successful in the world these young men find themselves in. There is a lovely bit where the authors discuss a ‘good job’ today for these boys involving working in McDonalds – but not out front, which is a better work environment for pretty girls – but out the back of the restaurant doing the cooking and so on. Except, of course, this new male colonisation of space is hardly going to impress their fathers – given they are required to wear aprons and work in kitchens, two things that are about as close to the definition of the feminine imaginable.
Globalisation is meant to allow free movement in what are essentially homogenised environments, environments perhaps best typified by airport lounges – with one much the same as another no matter where you are in the world. But these boys are literally constrained in their movements. Even with cars they can only go so far. They are quite unlike Bauman’s ‘tourists’ but rather are virtually vagabonds – trapped within locations not only physically, but also emotionally and psychologically. The dust of their home landscape sticks to their clothes and hangs about them wherever they go. The authors make the point that globalisation also means having access to brand name clothing and fast-food retail outlets. At one point they quote a young girl saying that where she lives is the best place around the district as it has both a McDonalds and a KFC and soon it will be even better when it has Pizza Hut and Hungry Jacks. And this is a theme that is reiterated throughout, that is, the association between being able to purchase consumer products and the possibility of thus having a valid life-style. This has become one of my fascinations lately, the notion that marketing presents us as essentially blank slates and that our identities can be and in fact need to be constructed by what we purchase – almost like one of those paper doll things you dress by adding layers of clothing and accessories to. “No, you’re off to work today, girl, you need your high-heals and black skirt, not your party dress…”
Whether it is boys playing soccer in Coober Pedy in the uniforms of distant European national teams or having to buy brand name sports wear to be properly cool, few activities in life have not been branded, often to the point where participation actually requires the right corporate imprimatur.
There was, of course, an interesting discussion on how much young people, particularly young males, in small towns feel ‘under surveillance’, and while this is clearly different from what life is like in cities, and what our movement towards hyper-surveillance has become, the clear difference is that those watching every movement you make in a small town actually know you and your family. In cities you are not even a number, you are just a face always watched just in case you might misbehave.
The problems this book presents are anything but simple to solve – The power of globalisation to homogenise comes up against culture’s ability to differentiate, and this makes many of these problems insanely difficult to address because the inertia associated with the ways of being male valued in these communities actively block many paths to change. There is a lovely flip at the end where one of the things that you might think could help some of the boys who do not fit the mould of being male in these communities – that is, who are not super-fit sportsman, employed in physical labour, supporting a family and being an all-round good mate – literally does fall under the category of ‘globalising influence’, that is, the internet. However, as is pointed out, far too often those males who have been ostracised by hegemonic masculinity tend to use computers to play the most hyper-masculine games – games that involve mass shootings, rapes, driving fast cars, and so on. That is, when given the chance, they live out even more extreme versions of the kinds of masculinities that they themselves have been victims of.
I liked this, not least as it has encouraged me to read Appadurai next. We like to think of ourselves as superior to animals that have been caught in their own ecological dead ends because we can 'adapt to change', but what is interesting in this book is just how much our cultures can go on forcing us to behave in ways that are counter-productive at best, if not literally self-destructive. The discussion here on boys and cars, and on boys and extreme sports that involve breaking bones and bodies, on what Barthes calls ‘plaisir’ (a kind of pleasure that comes from the joint aspirations of a group or culture to fit into that group or culture) is essential reading. But the self-destructive nature of many of these masculine pleasures is heightened by the fact that the other ways of being male are fast disappearing, so that only these displays are left. We need to rethink what it means to be male.
Globalisation is also quite a popular area of research, but it isn’t immediately clear what globalisation really means. In the main we think of it as a collapsing of space and time. For instance, a couple of weeks ago my daughters and I went to see a broadcast of Hamlet from a London theatre in a local Melbourne cinema. It was an odd experience, not least at the end when it wasn’t clear if people in the cinema would (or should) clap along with the audience in London, an audience that had no such doubts or hesitations. And while I am not at all saying that going along to a cinema in Carlton is an identical experience to going to a play in London, even if you are seeing much the same thing, it is still an interesting experience and one I would be more than happy to ‘make do’ with for all of those times when attending plays in London in any other way simply isn’t an option. This centripetal force – bringing all things together in ‘the centre’, where the centre is wherever you are – is a major idea behind globalisation.
This book, however, takes a interesting view of both masculinity and globalisation – not least because it looks at locations within Australia that are outside most Australians experience of Australia – in one of the world’s most urbanised nations, this book focuses on people who live ‘beyond the metropolis’ – that is, in small towns well outside the big cities most Australian live in. It makes the point that in such locations ‘globalisation’ hasn’t really made space and time contract or collapse in ways it is meant to have in larger cities, rather young people in particular in these places can feel just as isolated and distanced from ‘the world’ as it is possible to feel.
One of the towns discussed here is Coober Pedy – an Opal mining town in the middle of the desert. Here space is anything but contracted. The harshness of the local environment and the extreme distance to anywhere (literally anywhere) else makes concepts of the ‘metaphorical’ contraction of space all seem like wishful thinking. This is a place that imposes 'the local' on people.
Metaphors of space that are associated with globalisation are interesting here for other reasons too, particularly those closely associated with boys and with their view of how their lives progress. There is a discussion on maps, tours and in particular, aerial visions – that is, metaphors of space and pathways through space that allow boys to have some idea of how their lives may progress – and this is really about the possibility of self-efficacy. The problem is that with globalisation and particularly with the changes that are occurring in employment across the world, the jobs that once existed in these regions are fast disappearing. This means that only those boys with access to a kind of aerial vision are able of making out the pathways they ought to follow if they are to be successful. However, few of these boys have parents with the necessary skills to help them acquire such an aerial vision. These are people that have been let down by the education system for generations, often to the extent that they left school unable to read. People who despite often seeing the benefits that come from acquiring an education, are not in the least bit sure how to go about following that particular path or how to help when crossroads are met by their children. The problem is not merely one of not having the academic capital to be successful at school, although, clearly, this is a large part of the problem, but fundamentally it also involves the fact that the kinds of masculinities that are available and valued in these communities are masculinities that are associated with hard work, hard drinking, hard sports and so on – and these forms of masculinity are associated with lifestyles that are intimately bound to the past, bound up with the kinds of work that no longer exist or that is slowly dying out. Also, because these are frontier places, masculinity here is associated with independence and self-reliance. But if such Marlboro Man independence has always been a myth, it is ever more so now. The ‘work hard, play hard’ ideal as the only way to really be male actively undermines any hope of actually being successful in the world these young men find themselves in. There is a lovely bit where the authors discuss a ‘good job’ today for these boys involving working in McDonalds – but not out front, which is a better work environment for pretty girls – but out the back of the restaurant doing the cooking and so on. Except, of course, this new male colonisation of space is hardly going to impress their fathers – given they are required to wear aprons and work in kitchens, two things that are about as close to the definition of the feminine imaginable.
Globalisation is meant to allow free movement in what are essentially homogenised environments, environments perhaps best typified by airport lounges – with one much the same as another no matter where you are in the world. But these boys are literally constrained in their movements. Even with cars they can only go so far. They are quite unlike Bauman’s ‘tourists’ but rather are virtually vagabonds – trapped within locations not only physically, but also emotionally and psychologically. The dust of their home landscape sticks to their clothes and hangs about them wherever they go. The authors make the point that globalisation also means having access to brand name clothing and fast-food retail outlets. At one point they quote a young girl saying that where she lives is the best place around the district as it has both a McDonalds and a KFC and soon it will be even better when it has Pizza Hut and Hungry Jacks. And this is a theme that is reiterated throughout, that is, the association between being able to purchase consumer products and the possibility of thus having a valid life-style. This has become one of my fascinations lately, the notion that marketing presents us as essentially blank slates and that our identities can be and in fact need to be constructed by what we purchase – almost like one of those paper doll things you dress by adding layers of clothing and accessories to. “No, you’re off to work today, girl, you need your high-heals and black skirt, not your party dress…”
Whether it is boys playing soccer in Coober Pedy in the uniforms of distant European national teams or having to buy brand name sports wear to be properly cool, few activities in life have not been branded, often to the point where participation actually requires the right corporate imprimatur.
There was, of course, an interesting discussion on how much young people, particularly young males, in small towns feel ‘under surveillance’, and while this is clearly different from what life is like in cities, and what our movement towards hyper-surveillance has become, the clear difference is that those watching every movement you make in a small town actually know you and your family. In cities you are not even a number, you are just a face always watched just in case you might misbehave.
The problems this book presents are anything but simple to solve – The power of globalisation to homogenise comes up against culture’s ability to differentiate, and this makes many of these problems insanely difficult to address because the inertia associated with the ways of being male valued in these communities actively block many paths to change. There is a lovely flip at the end where one of the things that you might think could help some of the boys who do not fit the mould of being male in these communities – that is, who are not super-fit sportsman, employed in physical labour, supporting a family and being an all-round good mate – literally does fall under the category of ‘globalising influence’, that is, the internet. However, as is pointed out, far too often those males who have been ostracised by hegemonic masculinity tend to use computers to play the most hyper-masculine games – games that involve mass shootings, rapes, driving fast cars, and so on. That is, when given the chance, they live out even more extreme versions of the kinds of masculinities that they themselves have been victims of.
I liked this, not least as it has encouraged me to read Appadurai next. We like to think of ourselves as superior to animals that have been caught in their own ecological dead ends because we can 'adapt to change', but what is interesting in this book is just how much our cultures can go on forcing us to behave in ways that are counter-productive at best, if not literally self-destructive. The discussion here on boys and cars, and on boys and extreme sports that involve breaking bones and bodies, on what Barthes calls ‘plaisir’ (a kind of pleasure that comes from the joint aspirations of a group or culture to fit into that group or culture) is essential reading. But the self-destructive nature of many of these masculine pleasures is heightened by the fact that the other ways of being male are fast disappearing, so that only these displays are left. We need to rethink what it means to be male.
Displaying 1 of 1 review