Masculinity and Lad Culture

Masculinity and Lad CultureByMichael Hope@EduMikehope911

Introduction to MasculinityLad Culture at High SchoolLad Culture at UniversityMy Research2 Michael Hope

Masculinity 3 Michael Hope

Characteristics, qualities or roles usually attributed to men (Hearn, 2013)There is no one definitive model of Masculinity (Connell, 2008)4 Michael Hope

Tiered Masculinity (Carrigan, Connell and Lee, 1985)Complex identities and sub-identities of MasculinityGay-male community:lady-boys Masculine gay menHighest, most ideal and sought is Hegemonic Masculinity (Connell, 1995; Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005)5 Michael Hope

Hegemonic Masculinity The most honoured and desired form of masculinity (Connell, 2000, p. 69)Hardness (Looking and sounding tough), excessive alcohol consumption (Whitehead, 2002)Participation in sport (Dempster, 2009)In rare cases, mindless violence (Benyon, 2002)6 Michael Hope

Hegemonic Masculinity in Practise (Benyon, 2002)Observed office-based-workplaceAggressive emails and memosShouting face-to-face with men showing lesser masculinities7 Michael Hope

However.(Flood, 2002)Simplistic Predictable Doesnt allow for gender fluidity 8 Michael Hope

Lad Culture 1

Maguire, 2014McCann, 2015Martin, 2015Chittenden & Griffiths, 20159 Michael Hope

Lad Culture 2

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History11 Michael Hope

Paul Willis (1977) study Learning to LabourYoung, white working class males (Kes)Anti-school subcultureLeft school ASAPValued drinking, objectifying women, playing the fool and valued physical over mental achievements

Then, nothing for a long long time12 Michael Hope

Cultural ShiftTraditional ManCortese and Ling, 2011No Sissy StuffBig WheelSturdy OakGive Em Hell13 Michael Hope

Traditional ManDefined by what he consumes, not what he creates through labour (Alexander, 2003)Coincides with shift towards lifestyle advertising (Chapman, 1998) and consumerism (Mort, 1988)Seen as embracing the new world order where women and men could work together - equal opportunitiesMen started to feel inadequateStarted a backlash against feminist movement14 Michael Hope

New ManEmerged from anti-sexist and feminist movementsIn touch with their emotions (Messner, 1993)Turned his back on competitive sports (and) sexist jokes (Morrell, 1998, p. 7)15 Michael Hope

New Lad16 Michael Hope

Move back to traditional man characteristics Drinking with mates, taking risks, telling dirty jokes, and, most of all, looking at skimpily dressed women (McKay, Mikosza and Hutchines, 2005, p. 282)Started with white working class men however, through lads mags (Loaded, Nuts and Zoo) this new model spread to all parts of societyNew Laddism (Phipps, 2016) or Laddism/Lad/Lad CultureNow the go-to model of masculinity for most young men (Dempster, 2011; Jackson, et al. 2015)17 Michael Hope

Spreading Lad CultureLads Mags (Nuts, For Him Magazine (FHM), Zoo) - lots of research on this: Alexander, 2003; Benwell, 2003; Burrell, 2015; Cortese and Ling, 2011; Stribbe, 2004; Warrington and Younger, 2000.Lads websites (UniLad, LAD Bible)

SocialFriends - Peer groups, older studentsFamily - Parents, older siblings, Uncles, CousinsCelebrities - Old Top Gear, Joey Essex, Jack Wilshere, Joe Weller, Joe SuggConnell, 2008Social Media - Twitter, Facebook18 Michael Hope

Activity/Observation - Marcus Butler vlog19

Youtube. 2014What characteristics of your perception of Lad Culture do you see? Michael Hope

High School Lad Culture20 Michael Hope

Extreme Negotiating path and identity + hormones (Francis, 1999; Jackson, 2006a)Francis and Jackson interviewed High School students on views of lad cultureDesire to impress + maintain acceptance of male friends boys think if their friends think you know theyre hard and, stand up to the teachers theyre, like, a better person to know (Francis, 1999, p. 360)Why?21 Michael Hope

Fear of Academic FailureDefence mechanismProvide a reason for their failureNot be seen as feminine Femininity seen as weakHegemony - Traditional Man - No Sissy StuffYet homosexual behaviours is encouraged(Francis, 1999) Fear of Social FailureUncool to work(Francis, 1999; Jackson, 2006a 22 Michael Hope

University Lad Culture23 Michael Hope

High School lads + Booze = University LadTrinity of drinking, football and fucking(Edwards, 1997)having a laugh in the pub or clubs (Francis, 1999)Tends to coalesce around sport teams and drinking

In Lectures:Messing aboutArriving lateLow level disruptionDempster, 2007 24 Michael Hope

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Activity/Observation - BBC Lad Culture - it stops here videoWhat characteristics of your perception of Lad Culture do you see?Have these changed during this lecture?Youtube, 2015

The case FOR Lad CultureWay of males expressing themselvesBanter can play a pivotal role in forming and maintaining friendshipsCan be a model in which we can make fun of ourselvesLad culture now transcends gender, ethnicity and cultural dividesThose inciting violence, rape, sexist language are in the minorityCurtailing lad culture is curtailing free speech26 Michael Hope

The case AGAINST Lad CultureNormalisation of sexual violenceNormalisation of hate speechLet boys be boys lets the young men get away with a lot of bad stuff27 Michael Hope

Why Lad Culture mattersCrisis of masculinity - change from Traditional Man to more feminine modelUniversities need to find ways to help to curtail sexual violenceOften young men showing lad tendencies are kicked out from UniversityOften these are working class, first generation studentsIs it they who are misbehaving or the Universities not understanding new behaviours?28 Michael Hope

Reference ListAlexander, S. (2003). Stylish hard bodies: Branded masculinity in Mens Health Magazine. Sociological Perspectives 46(4) pp. 535-554.Benyon, J. (2002) Masculinities and culture. Buckingham, Philadelphia: Open University Press.Benwell, B. (2003). Introduction: Masculinity and mens lifestyle magazines. Oxford: Blackwell.Burrell, I. (2015) The Lad Bible: How a media success story has harnessed social media to fill the void left by lads mags. [Online] 20th November Independent [Accessed 1st July 2016] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/online/the-lad-bible-how-a-media-success-story-has-harnessed-social-media-to-fill-the-void-left-by-lads-a6742656.html Carrigan, T., Connell, R.W. and Lee, J. (1985) Toward a new sociology of masculinity Theory and Society 15(5) pp. 551 604.Chapman, R. (1988). The great pretender: variations on the new man theme. In Male order: Unwrapping masculinity, London: Lawrence & Wilshart.Chittenden, M & Griffiths, S. (2015) Cambridge master calls for end to laddish culture. The Sunday Times [Online] [Accessed on 21st April 2016] http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Education/article1620988.ece29 Michael Hope

Connell, R. W. (1995) Masculinities (Sydney, Australia, Allen & Unwin.Connell, R. (2000) The men and the boys. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.Connell, R. (2008) "Masculinity construction and sports in boys' education: a framework for thinking about the issue",Sport, Education and Society,vol. 13 (2), pp. 131-145.Connell, R. W. & Messerschmidt, J. W. (2005) Hegemonic masculinity: rethinking the concept, Gender & Society, 19(6), pp. 829-859.Cortese, D. and Ling, P. (2011) Enticing the New Lad: Masculinity as a Product of Consumption in Tobacco Industry-Developed Lifestyle Magazines Men and Masculinities. 13(1). pp 4-30.Dempster, S. (2007) Degrees of laddishness: Masculinities within the student experience of higher education. Thesis (PhD). Lancaster University.Dempster, S. (2009) Having the balls, having it all? Sport and constructions of undergraduate laddishness Gender and Education 21(5) pp 481 500.Dempster, S. (2011) I drive therefore Im man: Gender discourses, alcohol and the construction of British undergraduate masculinities Gender and Education 23(5): pp. 635-653.

Edwards (1997), 82: see Dempster (2009), p482Flood (2002), see Beasley, C (2008) Rethinking Hegemonic Masculinity in a Globalizing World, Men and Masculinities11(1): 86103.Francis, B (1999) Lads, lasses and (new) Labour: 1416-year-old students responses to the laddish behaviour and boys underachievement debate, British Journal of Sociology of Education 20(3): p355371.Hearn, J. (2013)Rethinking transnational men: beyond, between and within nationsLondon: Taylor & Francis.Stibbe, A. (2004). Health and the social construction of masculinity in Mens Health Magazine. Men and Masculinities 7(1) pp. 31-51.30 Michael Hope

Jackson, C., Dempster, S. and Pollard, L (2015)They just dont seem to really care, they just think its cool to sit there and talk: laddism in university teaching-learning contexts. Educational Review 67(3) pp. 300-314.Maguire, C. (2014) Is new wave of lad culture damaging young men's attitudes to women? Shocking rise of sexist comics and pick-up artists who catcall women and make jokes about rape. 11th November. Daily Mail online [Online] [Accessed on 21st April 2016] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2829989/Is-new-wave-lad-culture-damaging-young-men-s-attitudes-women-Shocking-rise-sexist-comics-pick-artists-catcall-women-make-jokes-rape.html Martin, C. (2015) The Death of British Lad Culture: How the UKs Dumb Young Men Finally Grew Up. Vice.com [Online] [Accessed on 21st April 2016] http://www.vice.com/read/uni-lads-and-lad-culture-three-years-on-clive-martin McCann, G. (2015) Lad Culture at Uni has gone too far. 14th September. The opinion panel community [Online] [Accessed on 21st April 2016] http://www.opinionpanel.co.uk/2015/09/14/the-repugnant-culture-of-the-unilad/ McKay, J, Mikosza, J. and Hutchins, B. (2005). Gentlemen, the Lunchbox Has Landed: Representations of masculinities and mens bodies in the popular media. In Handbook of studies on men & masculinities, ed. Kimmel, M., Hearn, J. and Connell, R. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. 270-288.Messner, M. (1993). Changing Men and feminist politics in the United States. Theory and Society 22(5) pp. 723-37.31 Michael Hope

Warrington, M., Younger, M. and Williams, J. (2000) Student attitudes, image and the gender gap. British Educational Research Journal 26(): pp 393-407.Whitehead, S. (2002) Men and Masculunities: Key Themes and New Directions. Keele, UK: Polity Publishing.Willis, P. (1977). Learning to labour: how working class kids get working class jobs. Aldershot: Gower.Youtube (2014). [Online]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQiRsJSDDBU. Accessed 20th October 2016.Youtube (2015). [Online]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dmxkkubDGU. Accessed 20th October 2016.32 Michael Hope