The construction of ‘tough’ masculinity

Abstract

Drawing on narrative data collected during a three-year ethnography of a Scottish high school, this article examines the construction of working-class adolescent masculinities. More specifically, the analysis focuses on how adolescent male speakers negotiate, reject and align themselves with the hegemonically dominant ideology of 'tough' masculinity, the role socially low-risk discourses of 'tough' masculinity play in interaction, and how speakers integrate a range of discursive strategies which help maintain homosociality when 'tough' masculinity is at stake. I argue that discourses which appear to be about 'being tough' do a great deal more social work than might be expected.

The Semiotics of the Evolving Gang Masculinity and Glasgow

“…Scotland's 'welfarist' approach to youth criminal justice (Deuchar and Sapouna 2016) has resulted in Glasgow's comparative neglect by the criminologists. Recent research focused upon territoriality, masculinity, and street socialization with some even arguing against the existence of youth gangs in Glasgow (Fraser 2013;Lawson 2013;Miller 2015). The abstracted nature of these foci upon the gang phenomenon has interfered with gaining a nuanced appreciation of the lives of individuals for whom being in a gang matters as a lived always mutating reality.…”

“…From the early 2000s there has emerged a fresh literature. Studies by the likes of Deuchar (2009Deuchar ( , 2013, Fraser (2013Fraser ( , 2015, Holligan (2013), Lawson (2013), Miller (2015, and the action research conducted by Glasgow police's Violence Reduction Unit, or Violence Reduction Unit (2011) all suggest Glasgow gangs, and in the case of Bradshaw (2005), McVie (2007, 2010) Edinburgh gangs, contributed significantly to new knowledge of the youth gang in Scotland. A common conclusion of this body of work is that gangs in Scotland are recreational youth groups located in working-class neighborhoods whose social capital is problematic.…”

The Handbook of Narrative Analysis

“…In tune with the above, small stories have been associated with and documented in cases of the tellers presenting emergent and hybrid identities for themselves, perhaps as part of life transitions -for example, gendered identities in male and female adolescents in different settings and countries, from Greece to Germany (e.g., Spreckels 2008), Scotland (Lawson 2013), Australia and the United States; ethnic identities among immigrants and, more generally, mobile populations in contexts of social transformation, such as post-communist settings (e.g., Galasińska 2009) and intercultural encounters (e.g., Fitzpatrick 2011;Lee 2013). This resonance of small stories is closely related to their salience in social media as part of the communication practices that are becoming prevalent in the era of globalization and mobility (see below for further discussion).…”

Ulwaluko: ‘Rights’ of Passage of Gay Men in South Africa

“…However, looking at these rites of passage for men from around the world, there is no mention of gay men within these ceremonies. According to Lawson (2013), this lack of inclusivity indicates the rejection of masculinity outside of what it means to be heterosexual male. Mckay and Mckay (2010) state that the Australian Mardudjara Aborigines' rite of passage consists of two parts: (1) the circumcision, and (2) the sub-incision of a young boy between the ages of 15 and 16.…”