‘Yobs’ and ‘Snobs’: Embodying Drink and the Problematic Male Drinking Body

Abstract

The cultural linkages between the drinking of alcohol and the assertion of masculinity have been well explored. In particular, drinking alcohol is still assumed to be a site where masculinity can be tested and proved. However, equally, drinking can be seen to undermine and discredit the male body. Further, older men's drinking practices are commonly overlooked. Through exploring two examples of cultural stereotypes relating to male drinking bodies, the lager lout and the real ale enthusiast, the article argues that persistent cultural assumptions about the appropriate way to embody masculinity. Both the lager lout and the bearded ale snob represent two alternative discourses of how alcohol undermines the bounded male body. Both cases exhibit a lack of control and restraint which is assumed to be desired of masculine bodies and, therefore, both become problematic and subject to social sanctions and cultural policing in the form of negative caricatured depictions. Finally, it is suggested that such stereotypes offer vivid examples of problematic male drinking bodies from which other embodiments can be normalised.

‘Did you ever hear of police being called to a beer festival?’ Discourses of merriment, moderation and ‘civilized’ drinking amongst real ale enthusiasts

“…Unrestrained conduct in others is greeted with repugnance and distaste and the use of terms such as 'horrible', 'cheap' and 'nasty'. In this, then, it is perhaps unsurprising that the unbounded and messy bodies of some drinkers have been a focal point in media debates about drinking and drunkenness in Britain (a theme also explored in Thurnell Read, 2011aRead, , 2013. In particular, bodies are central to classed discourses of disgust and distaste where the unruly classed body equates to moral or psychological failings of the individual (Lawler, 2005: Skeggs, 2009).…”

A Systematic Review of Alcohol Interventions Among Workers in Male-Dominated Industries

“…[50][51][52] A few studies have explored drinking cultures in male-dominated workplaces and found that drinking was considered to be a normal part of working life, and acceptance, and indeed any management intervention would be actively challenged by workers. 45,[47][48][49] Likewise, managers may be ambivalent to respond to these issues.…”

Omnivorous Masculinity

“…In addition, others have argued that beer consumption is central to homosocial bonding among men, a key component of "doing masculinity" (de Smith 2007a, 2007b;Eriksen 1999;McCracken 1993;Measham 2002;Thurnell-Read 2012;Wenner and Jackson 2009;West and Zimmerman 1987). This research corpus on beer and masculinity is truly expansive, but its limitations are twofold: these resounding conclusions that beer is masculine tend to reduce beer to lager; and by extension, this body of literature tends to restrict cultural analysis of beer to the mainstream beer culture, which is largely homosocial and univorous (for exceptions, see Chapman, Lellock, and Lippard 2017;Darwin 2017;Thurnell-Read 2013, 2016.…”