The construction of ‘tough’ masculinity
Negotiation, alignment and rejection
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v7i3.369Keywords:
Glasgow, Glaswegian, masculinity, critical discursive psychology, urban ethnographyAbstract
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.
References
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Andersson, K. (2008) Constructing young masculinity: A case study of heroic discourse on violence. Discourse and Society 19(2): 139–161. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1177/0957926507085949
Atkinson, J. M. and Heritage, J. (1984) Transcript notation. In J. M. Atkinson and J. Heritage (eds) Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversational Analysis xi–xvi. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Baker, C. (2004) Membership categorization and interview accounts. In D. Silverman (ed.) Qualitative Research: Theory, Method and Practice 162–176. London: Sage.
Bamberg, M. (2004) Form and functions of ‘slut-bashing’ in male identity constructions in 15-year-olds. Human Development 47(6): 331–353. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1159/000081036
Bamberg, M. and Georgakopoulou, A. (2008) Small stories as a new perspective in narrative and identity analysis. Text and Talk 28(3): 377–396. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1515/TEXT.2008.018
Benwell, B. and Stokoe, E. (2006) Discourse and Identity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Benwell, B. and Stokoe, E. (2010) Analysing identity in interaction: Contrasting discourse, genealogical, narrative and conversational analysis. In M. Wetherell and C. Mohanty (eds) The SAGE Handbook of Identities 82–101. London: Sage.
Bucholtz, M. (1999) You da man: Narrating the racial other in the production of white masculinity. Journal of Sociolinguistics 3(4): 443–460. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ 1467-9481.00090
Bucholtz, M. and Hall, K. (2005) Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies 7(4): 585–614. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/14614 45605054407
Butler, J. (1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge.
Cameron, D. (1997) Performing gender identity: Young men’s talk and the construction of heterosexual masculinity. In S. Johnston and U. Meinhof (eds) Language and Masculinity 47–64. Oxford: Blackwell.
Cheshire, J. (1982) Variation in an English Dialect: A Sociolinguistic Study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Coates, J. (2003) Men Talk: Stories in the Making of Masculinities. Oxford: Blackwell.
Connell, R. (2005) Masculinities. 2nd edn. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Connell, R. and Messerschmidt, J. (2005) Hegemonic masculinity: Rethinking the concept. Gender and Society 19(6): 829–859. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0891243205 278639
Courtenay, W. (2000) Constructions of masculinity and their influence on men’s well-being: A theory of gender and health. Social Science and Medicine 50(10): 1385–1401. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0277-9536(99)00390-1
Davies, A. (2007) Glasgow’s ‘Reign of Terror’: Street gangs, racketeering and intimidation in the 1920s and 1930s. Contemporary British History 21(4): 405–427. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13619460601060413
Eckert, P. (2000) Linguistic Variation as Social Practice: The Linguistic Construction of Identity in Belten High. Oxford: Blackwell.
Edley, N. (2001a) Analysing masculinity: Interpretative repertoires, ideological dilemmas and subject positions. In M. Wetherell, S. Taylor and S. Yates (eds) Discourse as Data: A Guide for Analysis 189–228. London: Sage.
Edley, N. (2001b) Conversation analysis, discursive psychology and the study of ideology: Response to Susan Speer. Feminism and Psychology 11(1): 136–140. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959353501011001007
Edley, N. and Wetherell, M. (1997) Jockeying for position: The construction of masculine identities. Discourse and Society 8(2): 203–217. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/ 0957926597008002004
Evaldsson, A.-C. (2002) Boys’ gossip telling: Staging identities and indexing (unacceptable) masculine behaviour. Text and Talk 22(2): 199–225.
Farrington, D. (1998) Predictors, causes, and correlates of male youth violence. Crime and Justice 24: 421–454. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/449284
Forsythe, D. (1999) ‘It’s just a matter of common sense’: Ethnography as invisible work. Computer Supported Cooperative Work 8(1): 127–144. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1008692231284
Georgakopoulou, A. (2007) Small Stories, Interaction and Identities. London: John Benjamins.
Goodwin, M. (1990) He-Said-She-Said: Talk as Social Organization among Black Children. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Hawley, P. (2007) Social dominance in childhood and adolescence: Why social competition and aggression may go hand in hand. In P. Hawley, T. Little and P. Rodkin (eds) Aggression and Adaptation: The Bright Side to Bad Behaviour 1–30. Oxford: Routledge.
Johnson, R. and McIvor, A. (2007) Narratives from the urban workplace: Oral testomonies and the reconstruction of men’s work in the heavy industries in Glasgow. In R. Rodger and J. Herbert (eds) Testimonies of the City: Identity, Community and Change in a Contemporary Urban World 23–44. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Johnston, S. and Meinhof, U. (1997) Language and Masculinity. Oxford: Blackwell.
Kenway, J. and Fitzclarence, L. (2005) Masculinity, violence and schooling: Challenging ‘poisonous pedagogies’. In C. Skelton and B. Francis (eds) A Feminist Critique of Education: 15 Years of Gender Development 38–54. Oxord: Routledge.
Kiesling, S. (1998) Men’s identities and sociolinguistic variation: The case of fraternity men. Journal of Sociolinguistics 2(1): 69–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467- 9481.00031
Kiesling, S. (2004) Dude. American Speech 79(3): 281–305. http://dx.doi.org/10. 1215/00031283-79-3-281
Kiesling, S. (2005) Homosocial desire in men’s talk: Balancing and re-creating cultural discourses of masculinity. Language in Society 34(5): 695–726. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1017/S0047404505050268
Kiesling, S. (2006) Hegemonic identity-making in narrative. In A. De Fina, D. Schiffrin and M. Bamberg (eds) Discourse and Identity 261–287. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kimmel, M (2001) Masculinity as homophobia: Fear, shame, and silence in the construction of gender identity. In S. M. Whitehead and F. J. Barrett (eds) The Masculinities Reader 266–287. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Kintrea, K., Bannister, J. and Pickering, J. (2011) ‘It’s just an area – everybody represents it’: Exploring young people’s territorial behaviour in British cities. In B. Goldson (ed.) Youth in Crisis? ‘Gangs’, Territoriality and Violence 55–71. Oxord: Routledge.
Labov, W. (1972) Language in the Inner City: Studies in Black English Vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Lawson, R. (2009) Constructions of social identity among adolescent males in Glasgow. Unpublished PhD thesis. University of Glasgow, UK.
Lawson, R. (2011) Patterns of linguistic variation among Glaswegian adolescent males. Journal of Sociolinguistics 15(2): 226–255. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2011.00477.x
Lewis, G. (1983) Real Men Like Violence: Australian Men, Media, and Violence. Kenthurst, Australia: Kangaroo Press.
McArthur, A. and Long, H. K. (1935) No Mean City. London: Corgi Books.
Milroy, L. (1987) Language and Social Networks. 2nd edn. Oxford: Blackwell.
Mendoza-Denton, N. (2008) Homegirls: Language and Cultural Practices among Latina Youth Gangs. Oxford: Blackwell.
Migliaccio, T. (2011) Men’s friendships: Performances of masculinity. Journal of Men’s Studies 17(3): 226–241. http://dx.doi.org/10.3149/jms.1703.226
Moore, E. (2003) Learning style and identity: A sociolinguistic analysis of a Bolton high school. Unpublished PhD thesis. University of Manchester, UK.
Ochs, E. and Capps, L. (2001). Living Narrative: Creating Lives in Everyday Storytelling. Cambridge, M.A.: Harvard University Press.
Ochs, E., Smith, R. and Taylor, C. (1989) Detective stories at dinnertime: Problem-solving through co-narration. Cultural Dynamics 2(2): 238–257. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/092137408900200206
O’Reilly, K. (2009) Key Concepts in Ethnography. London: Sage.
Patrick, J. (1973) A Glasgow Gang Observed. London: Methuen.
Phoenix, A. and Frosh, S. (2001) Positioned by hegemonic masculinities: A study on London boys’ narratives of identity. Australian Psychologist 36(1): 27–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00050060108259628
Phoenix, A., Frosh, S. and Pattman, R. (2003) Producing contradictory masculine subject positions: Narratives of threat, homophobia and bullying in 11–14-year-old boys. Journal of Social Issues 59(1): 179–195. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1540-4560.t01-1-00011
Potter, J. and Hepburn, A. (2005) Qualitative interviews in psychology: Problems and possibilities. Qualitative Research in Psychology 2(4): 281–307. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1191/1478088705qp045oa
Quinn, P. (2004) Easterhouse 2004: An Ethnographic Account of Men’s Experience, Use and Refusal of Violence. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Glasgow, UK.
Rapley, T. (2001) The art(fulness) of open-ended interviewing: Some considerations on analysing interviews. Qualitative Research 1(3): 303–323. http://dx.doi.org/10. 1177/146879410100100303
Skelton, C. (1997) Primary boys and hegemonic masculinity. British Journal of Sociology of Education 18(3): 349–369. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0142569970180303
Speer, S. (2001a) Reconsidering the concept of hegemonic masculinity: Discursive psychology, conversation analysis and participants’ orientations. Feminism and Psychology 11(1): 107–135. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959353501011001006
Speer, S. (2001b) Participants’ orientations, ideology and the ontological status of hegemonic masculinity: A rejoinder to Nigel Edley. Feminism and Psychology 11(1): 141–144. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959353501011001008
Stokoe, E. and Smithson, J. (2002) Gender and sexuality in talk-in-interaction: Considering conversational analytic perspectives. In P. McIlvenny (ed.) Talking Gender and Sexuality 79–110. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Wetherell, M. (1998) Positioning and interpretative repertoires: Conversation analysis and post-structuralism in dialogue. Discourse and Society 9(3): 387–412. http://dx. doi.org/10.1177/0957926598009003005
Wetherell, M. and Edley, N. (1999) Negotiating hegemonic masculinity: Imaginary positions and psycho-discursive practices. Feminism and Psychology 9(3): 335–356. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959353599009003012
Whyte, C. (1998) Masculinities in contemporary Scottish fiction. Forum for Modern Language Studies 34(3): 274–285. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/fmls/34.3.274
Willis, P. (1977) Learning to Labor: How Working-class Kids Get Working-class Jobs. Farnborough: Gower Publishing.
Wolfson, N. (1976) Speech events and natural speech: Some implications for sociolinguistic methodology. Language in Society 5(2): 189–209. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500007028
Young, H. (2007) Hard man/new man: Re/composing masculinities in Glasgow C.1950–2000. Oral History 35(1): 71–81.
Zeeland, S. (1997) Masculine Marine: Homoeroticism in the U.S. Marine Corps. Binghamton: The Haworth Press.
Andersson, K. (2008) Constructing young masculinity: A case study of heroic discourse on violence. Discourse and Society 19(2): 139–161. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1177/0957926507085949
Atkinson, J. M. and Heritage, J. (1984) Transcript notation. In J. M. Atkinson and J. Heritage (eds) Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversational Analysis xi–xvi. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Baker, C. (2004) Membership categorization and interview accounts. In D. Silverman (ed.) Qualitative Research: Theory, Method and Practice 162–176. London: Sage.
Bamberg, M. (2004) Form and functions of ‘slut-bashing’ in male identity constructions in 15-year-olds. Human Development 47(6): 331–353. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1159/000081036
Bamberg, M. and Georgakopoulou, A. (2008) Small stories as a new perspective in narrative and identity analysis. Text and Talk 28(3): 377–396. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1515/TEXT.2008.018
Benwell, B. and Stokoe, E. (2006) Discourse and Identity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Benwell, B. and Stokoe, E. (2010) Analysing identity in interaction: Contrasting discourse, genealogical, narrative and conversational analysis. In M. Wetherell and C. Mohanty (eds) The SAGE Handbook of Identities 82–101. London: Sage.
Bucholtz, M. (1999) You da man: Narrating the racial other in the production of white masculinity. Journal of Sociolinguistics 3(4): 443–460. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ 1467-9481.00090
Bucholtz, M. and Hall, K. (2005) Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies 7(4): 585–614. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/14614 45605054407
Butler, J. (1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge.
Cameron, D. (1997) Performing gender identity: Young men’s talk and the construction of heterosexual masculinity. In S. Johnston and U. Meinhof (eds) Language and Masculinity 47–64. Oxford: Blackwell.
Cheshire, J. (1982) Variation in an English Dialect: A Sociolinguistic Study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Coates, J. (2003) Men Talk: Stories in the Making of Masculinities. Oxford: Blackwell.
Connell, R. (2005) Masculinities. 2nd edn. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Connell, R. and Messerschmidt, J. (2005) Hegemonic masculinity: Rethinking the concept. Gender and Society 19(6): 829–859. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0891243205 278639
Courtenay, W. (2000) Constructions of masculinity and their influence on men’s well-being: A theory of gender and health. Social Science and Medicine 50(10): 1385–1401. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0277-9536(99)00390-1
Davies, A. (2007) Glasgow’s ‘Reign of Terror’: Street gangs, racketeering and intimidation in the 1920s and 1930s. Contemporary British History 21(4): 405–427. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13619460601060413
Eckert, P. (2000) Linguistic Variation as Social Practice: The Linguistic Construction of Identity in Belten High. Oxford: Blackwell.
Edley, N. (2001a) Analysing masculinity: Interpretative repertoires, ideological dilemmas and subject positions. In M. Wetherell, S. Taylor and S. Yates (eds) Discourse as Data: A Guide for Analysis 189–228. London: Sage.
Edley, N. (2001b) Conversation analysis, discursive psychology and the study of ideology: Response to Susan Speer. Feminism and Psychology 11(1): 136–140. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959353501011001007
Edley, N. and Wetherell, M. (1997) Jockeying for position: The construction of masculine identities. Discourse and Society 8(2): 203–217. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/ 0957926597008002004
Evaldsson, A.-C. (2002) Boys’ gossip telling: Staging identities and indexing (unacceptable) masculine behaviour. Text and Talk 22(2): 199–225.
Farrington, D. (1998) Predictors, causes, and correlates of male youth violence. Crime and Justice 24: 421–454. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/449284
Forsythe, D. (1999) ‘It’s just a matter of common sense’: Ethnography as invisible work. Computer Supported Cooperative Work 8(1): 127–144. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1008692231284
Georgakopoulou, A. (2007) Small Stories, Interaction and Identities. London: John Benjamins.
Goodwin, M. (1990) He-Said-She-Said: Talk as Social Organization among Black Children. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Hawley, P. (2007) Social dominance in childhood and adolescence: Why social competition and aggression may go hand in hand. In P. Hawley, T. Little and P. Rodkin (eds) Aggression and Adaptation: The Bright Side to Bad Behaviour 1–30. Oxford: Routledge.
Johnson, R. and McIvor, A. (2007) Narratives from the urban workplace: Oral testomonies and the reconstruction of men’s work in the heavy industries in Glasgow. In R. Rodger and J. Herbert (eds) Testimonies of the City: Identity, Community and Change in a Contemporary Urban World 23–44. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Johnston, S. and Meinhof, U. (1997) Language and Masculinity. Oxford: Blackwell.
Kenway, J. and Fitzclarence, L. (2005) Masculinity, violence and schooling: Challenging ‘poisonous pedagogies’. In C. Skelton and B. Francis (eds) A Feminist Critique of Education: 15 Years of Gender Development 38–54. Oxord: Routledge.
Kiesling, S. (1998) Men’s identities and sociolinguistic variation: The case of fraternity men. Journal of Sociolinguistics 2(1): 69–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467- 9481.00031
Kiesling, S. (2004) Dude. American Speech 79(3): 281–305. http://dx.doi.org/10. 1215/00031283-79-3-281
Kiesling, S. (2005) Homosocial desire in men’s talk: Balancing and re-creating cultural discourses of masculinity. Language in Society 34(5): 695–726. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1017/S0047404505050268
Kiesling, S. (2006) Hegemonic identity-making in narrative. In A. De Fina, D. Schiffrin and M. Bamberg (eds) Discourse and Identity 261–287. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kimmel, M (2001) Masculinity as homophobia: Fear, shame, and silence in the construction of gender identity. In S. M. Whitehead and F. J. Barrett (eds) The Masculinities Reader 266–287. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Kintrea, K., Bannister, J. and Pickering, J. (2011) ‘It’s just an area – everybody represents it’: Exploring young people’s territorial behaviour in British cities. In B. Goldson (ed.) Youth in Crisis? ‘Gangs’, Territoriality and Violence 55–71. Oxord: Routledge.
Labov, W. (1972) Language in the Inner City: Studies in Black English Vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Lawson, R. (2009) Constructions of social identity among adolescent males in Glasgow. Unpublished PhD thesis. University of Glasgow, UK.
Lawson, R. (2011) Patterns of linguistic variation among Glaswegian adolescent males. Journal of Sociolinguistics 15(2): 226–255. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2011.00477.x
Lewis, G. (1983) Real Men Like Violence: Australian Men, Media, and Violence. Kenthurst, Australia: Kangaroo Press.
McArthur, A. and Long, H. K. (1935) No Mean City. London: Corgi Books.
Milroy, L. (1987) Language and Social Networks. 2nd edn. Oxford: Blackwell.
Mendoza-Denton, N. (2008) Homegirls: Language and Cultural Practices among Latina Youth Gangs. Oxford: Blackwell.
Migliaccio, T. (2011) Men’s friendships: Performances of masculinity. Journal of Men’s Studies 17(3): 226–241. http://dx.doi.org/10.3149/jms.1703.226
Moore, E. (2003) Learning style and identity: A sociolinguistic analysis of a Bolton high school. Unpublished PhD thesis. University of Manchester, UK.
Ochs, E. and Capps, L. (2001). Living Narrative: Creating Lives in Everyday Storytelling. Cambridge, M.A.: Harvard University Press.
Ochs, E., Smith, R. and Taylor, C. (1989) Detective stories at dinnertime: Problem-solving through co-narration. Cultural Dynamics 2(2): 238–257. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/092137408900200206
O’Reilly, K. (2009) Key Concepts in Ethnography. London: Sage.
Patrick, J. (1973) A Glasgow Gang Observed. London: Methuen.
Phoenix, A. and Frosh, S. (2001) Positioned by hegemonic masculinities: A study on London boys’ narratives of identity. Australian Psychologist 36(1): 27–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00050060108259628
Phoenix, A., Frosh, S. and Pattman, R. (2003) Producing contradictory masculine subject positions: Narratives of threat, homophobia and bullying in 11–14-year-old boys. Journal of Social Issues 59(1): 179–195. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1540-4560.t01-1-00011
Potter, J. and Hepburn, A. (2005) Qualitative interviews in psychology: Problems and possibilities. Qualitative Research in Psychology 2(4): 281–307. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1191/1478088705qp045oa
Quinn, P. (2004) Easterhouse 2004: An Ethnographic Account of Men’s Experience, Use and Refusal of Violence. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Glasgow, UK.
Rapley, T. (2001) The art(fulness) of open-ended interviewing: Some considerations on analysing interviews. Qualitative Research 1(3): 303–323. http://dx.doi.org/10. 1177/146879410100100303
Skelton, C. (1997) Primary boys and hegemonic masculinity. British Journal of Sociology of Education 18(3): 349–369. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0142569970180303
Speer, S. (2001a) Reconsidering the concept of hegemonic masculinity: Discursive psychology, conversation analysis and participants’ orientations. Feminism and Psychology 11(1): 107–135. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959353501011001006
Speer, S. (2001b) Participants’ orientations, ideology and the ontological status of hegemonic masculinity: A rejoinder to Nigel Edley. Feminism and Psychology 11(1): 141–144. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959353501011001008
Stokoe, E. and Smithson, J. (2002) Gender and sexuality in talk-in-interaction: Considering conversational analytic perspectives. In P. McIlvenny (ed.) Talking Gender and Sexuality 79–110. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Wetherell, M. (1998) Positioning and interpretative repertoires: Conversation analysis and post-structuralism in dialogue. Discourse and Society 9(3): 387–412. http://dx. doi.org/10.1177/0957926598009003005
Wetherell, M. and Edley, N. (1999) Negotiating hegemonic masculinity: Imaginary positions and psycho-discursive practices. Feminism and Psychology 9(3): 335–356. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959353599009003012
Whyte, C. (1998) Masculinities in contemporary Scottish fiction. Forum for Modern Language Studies 34(3): 274–285. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/fmls/34.3.274
Willis, P. (1977) Learning to Labor: How Working-class Kids Get Working-class Jobs. Farnborough: Gower Publishing.
Wolfson, N. (1976) Speech events and natural speech: Some implications for sociolinguistic methodology. Language in Society 5(2): 189–209. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500007028
Young, H. (2007) Hard man/new man: Re/composing masculinities in Glasgow C.1950–2000. Oral History 35(1): 71–81.
Zeeland, S. (1997) Masculine Marine: Homoeroticism in the U.S. Marine Corps. Binghamton: The Haworth Press.
Published
2013-10-08
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Lawson, R. (2013). The construction of ‘tough’ masculinity: Negotiation, alignment and rejection. Gender and Language, 7(3), 369-395. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v7i3.369
