‘A place for men to come and do their thing’: constructing masculinities in betting shops in London

Abstract

During fieldwork conducted with workers and customers in betting shops in London research participants consistently conceptualized betting shops as masculine spaces in contrast to the femininity of other places including home and the bingo hall. According to this argument, betting on horses and dogs was 'men's business' and betting shops were 'men's worlds'. Two explanations were offered to account for this situation. The first suggested that betting was traditionally a pastime enjoyed by men rather than women. The second was that betting is intrinsically more appealing to men because it is based on calculation and measurement, and women prefer more intuitive, simpler challenges. I use interviews with older people to describe how the legalisation of betting in cash in 1961 changed the geography of betting. I then draw upon interviews with regular customers in order to show how knowledge about betting is shared within rather than between genders. Finally, I use my experience of training and working as a cashier to describe how the particular hegemonic masculinity found in betting shops in London is maintained through myriad everyday practices which reward certain kinds of gendered performances while at the same time suppressing alternatives. The article shows how particular spaces may become gendered as an unanticipated consequence of legislation and how contingent gendered associations are both naturalized and, at the same time, subjected to intense attention.

A content analysis of how ‘normal’ sports betting behaviour is represented in gambling advertising

“…Although no previous work had quantified the extent of such absence, some studies have reported that women appeared objectified in as much as 25% of an Australian sports betting adverts sample (Deans, Thomas, Daube, Derevensky, et al, 2016). This might not come as a surprise considering the (i) conceptualisation of sports betting by some Australian bettors as a 'boy's club' , (ii) gender stereotypes largely present in betting marketing (Thomas et al, 2015), and (iii) male-centric atmosphere described in an ethnographic study of British sports betting shops (Cassidy, 2014). extra layer of complexity.…”

Parental and peer influences on emerging adult problem gambling: Does exposure to problem gambling reduce stigmatizing perceptions and increase vulnerability?

“…Interestingly, past research has suggested that peer influence may be more salient for young men than for young women (Cassidy, 2013;Morton, 2003). As there were only 55 men in this study, we were limited in assessing gender differences, however gender was a strong predictor of problem gambling with men scoring higher.…”

Reclaiming the everyday: the situational dynamics of the 2011 London Riots

“…People targeted places located near them, with a certain material context (often large high streets), and, most importantly, which had specific personal and emotional resonances (Baudains, Braithwaite and Johnson, 2013). Sociological research has shown how different spaces can become associated with different meanings (Alexander, 2011;Cassidy, 2014); but, also, how places shape the identity ascribed to people (Saperstein and Penner, 2010) or the identities they themselves construct (Zhao, 1998). In the case of the London Riots both sides of this dialectic are significant.…”