Doing Rural Masculinity – From Logging to Outfield Tourism

Abstract

This article deals with the issue of stability and change in rural masculinity by studying how masculinity changes when work changes. Logging, which used to form a basis for the construction of masculinity in peripheral areas, is in the process of being replaced by new types of work brought about by the commodification of natural and cultural resources. Hunting, fishing and adventures in the wilderness as products are grounded in the traditional competences of rural men, but include elements of service work that go beyond masculine rural knowledge and networks, and introduce features of femininity and urbanity. When urban customers enter places and activities that used to be central for the identification of the rural masculine, rural men seek new places and challenges where 'real rural masculinity' may be expressed.

Farm diversification into tourism – Implications for social identity?

“…They judge the farm tourist hosts on the basis of how friendly and service minded they are, how tasty and delicious the food is, how comfortable the beds are, and how interesting the stories told and the activities offered are. Brandth and Haugen (2005) have shown how rural men play to a more urban audience when they bring tourists into the wilderness, and how this audience influences dress, language and manners. At the same time, it is important to retain their image as rural men.…”

Doing masculinity: gendered challenges to replacing burley tobacco in central Kentucky

“…Many increasingly farm from the cabs of their pickup trucks, and ever-growing tobacco acreages may eventually lead to the purchase of the newer and more efficient harvesting machines that are currently out of economic reach. What it means to do tobacco man masculinity may change as technologies change (see Brandth and Haugen 2005). 14 Doing masculinity: tobacco marketing As Trauger argues, public agricultural spaces such as ''equipment dealerships, grain elevators, and the local town halls, […] are largely dominated and occupied by men'' (2004, p. 296).…”

“…For instance, Brandth and Haugen (2005) note a change, between the 1970s to the 1980s, in how masculinity is represented in the context of forest work in Norway based on changing technologies. They argue that in the 1970s, physical work with a chainsaw was the masculine ideal, but by the 1980s, loggers ''are represented as active and competent machine operators, not only of chain saws, but of harvesting machines, forwarders, skidders, loaders, trucks and lorries.…”

Strong, active women: (Re)doing rural femininity through equestrian sport and leisure

“…Rural spaces are seen as maledominated and male-defined; places in which definitions of masculinity and what it means to be a 'real' man are bound up with mastery of the land, physical toughness and the denigration of normative feminine traits such as emotion and sensitivity (Bye, 2009). Farming continues to dominate rural societies and communities, even as the economic importance of farming deteriorates in many countries, and to be a 'good' (male) farmer is to dominate and tame the elements, to endure physical toil and extreme conditions, and to demonstrate mastery of the land and landscape (Laoire , 2002;Little, 2002;Saugeres, 2002a;Brandth and Haugen, 2005). In contrast, women's positions in rural societies have often been restricted to supportive and nurturing roles within the family and wider community.…”