Male Trouble: Masculinity and The Performance of Crisis

Abstract

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Moving beyond ideas of laddism: conceptualising ‘mischievous masculinities’ as a new way of understanding everyday sexism and gender relations

“…Since then lads have become what Rosalind Gill refers to as 'familiar and recognizable stereotypes ' (2003, p. 37). Society and the media have become saturated with references to lads and lad cultures, with laddism becoming a highly marketable phenomenon evident in the abundance of television shows and magazines which have become dedicated to reflecting and centring upon lad culture (Walsh, 2010;Edwards, 2006). This type of masculinity is still very much present today with the effects and implications of this culture and gendered identity rippling through society in diverse ways.…”

“…Definitions and popular perceptions of lads places an emphasis upon youth, with laddish behaviours deemed to be synonymous with boyishness and a lack of discipline and maturity (Jackson, Dempster and Pollard, 2014;Gill, 2003;Kehily and Nayak, 1997). Within both the narratives of laddism and 'boys being boys', there is the underlying assumption that the behaviours and interactive practices associated with young men, including laddism and associated sexist ideologies, are temporary, and so laddism is understood to be tied up to particular moments of the life course (Walsh, 2010;Thompson, 2002;Middleton, 1992). Furthermore, writing which advocates laddism as specific to adolescence insinuates that 'being a lad' is something which you grow out of, an identity you discard as you progress through the lifecourse, when it is expected that you begin to 'know better' (Jackson et al, 2014;Gill, 2003).…”

“…Furthermore, writing which advocates laddism as specific to adolescence insinuates that 'being a lad' is something which you grow out of, an identity you discard as you progress through the lifecourse, when it is expected that you begin to 'know better' (Jackson et al, 2014;Gill, 2003). Within writing on laddism a clear theme emerges, that this form of behaviour is something which males overcome with time (Walsh, 2010;Thompson, 2002). Such ideas align with work from Sociology which discusses transitioning masculinities, with writers such as Robinson and Hockey (2011) noting that men's identities shift through both space and time.…”

Learning From Love Island? Diversification of the Hegemonic Man

“…Performance also provides a way of thinking about the social world, evidenced in work which utilizes performative language and frameworks in order to develop arguments around the topic of identity (Curry, 1991;Cameron, 1992;Gutterman, 2008;Walsh, 2010). Erving Goffman's conceptualization of the dramaturgical theme in his work The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959), in which he notes that people consciously present themselves to others through performances, is one of the earliest works on performance and heavily influenced subsequent work on interactions and identity.…”

‘That’s what I call a man’

“…First appearing in the 1990s in magazines such as loaded, FHM and Maxim, the socalled "new lad" rejects the purported artificial feminisation of the "new man" and seeks instead to reassert male dominance via the privileging of an imagined traditional and "authentic" masculinity based on sexism, homophobia and avoidance of any traits or behaviours deemed "unmanly". The emergence of the "new lad" can therefore be understood as a backlash against feminism and a reaffirmation in Britain of the principal tenets of patriarchy (Whehelan 2000;Walsh 2010). Yet at the same time, the "new lad" does not embrace all aspects of the traditional patriarchal order.…”