Programme full

Wednesday 15 April 2015 11:00 - 12:30
PAPER SESSION 2
society by setting up the new social order that is based on liberty, equality, justice, fraternity and dignity with the
principle of democracy. Present paper is an outreach towards understanding construction of good Indian society.
Social Divisions/Social Identities 2
W702, HAMISH WOOD BUILDING
New Lad or Just Like Dad? Working-class Masculinities in Young Adulthood
Bradshaw, L.
(University of Hull )
The rebirth of a misogynistic and homophobic laddish culture has reportedly gained momentum. Recently both
national press coverage and academic research, for example, have highlighted its pervasiveness on UK university
campuses (Phipps, 2013). This so-called Loaded and Nuts script of masculinity has tended to be appropriated by the
middle-classes. A qualitative mixed-methods analysis was deployed to generate data from 114 participants for
exploring laddish performativities of working-class men. Emerging themes of the research suggest that there are
multiple ways for participants to perform masculinity. Nevertheless, in a context of high homohysteria an entrenched
dichotomy between 'real' versus gay men served as an overarching surveillance or policing regime in the repudiation
of or flight from the feminine. Socially constructed performativities were consequently stereotypic in their 'macho'
inclinations. Masculine credit was gained through a number of established conduits. Paramount was construction
apprenticeships, but these were becoming increasingly elusive both through deindustrialisation and the current
economic downturn. As alternatives, engaging in 'macho' sports, excessive alcohol consumption, drug-taking and
hyper-masculine honour-based violence were commonalities. Moreover, the 'coinage of women' (i.e. their sexual
objectification) functioned to validate sexual prowess. Simultaneously, bragging about sexual conquests provided
'degrading' entertainment- an intrinsic part of male camaraderie and banter. Although sharing similarities with the
laddish culture highlighted above, these men were actually performing an intergenerationally transmitted conformist
type of masculinity. In other words, they were following their father's (and grandfather's footsteps) in electing both
similar occupational choices and leisure pursuits. For these generations of men, 'laddism' never went away.
The Sexuality-assemblages of Young Men: A New Materialist Analysis
Alldred, P., Fox, N.J.
(Brunel University London)
While post-structuralism demonstrated how sexuality, sexual subjectivity and sexual orientation are shaped by
socially-contingent systems of thought, this move does not in itself challenge 'anthropocentric' conceptions of the
human body or human 'individual' as the locus where sexuality 'resides'. Questions over the prioritised status of the
human body and subject in the social sciences have fuelled interest in 'new' materialist approaches, which cut across
agency/structure and animate/inanimate dualisms. This materialist turn supplies ontological status not to a body or
conscious subject, but to assemblages of 'pre-human or even non-human elements that compose the web of forces,
intensities and encounters' (Braidotti, 2006: 41) that produce bodies, subjectivities, body capacities, and by extension,
sexualities. This paper presents a new materialist ontology of young men and sexuality that shifts the locus of
sexuality away from bodies and individuals, toward the affective flow within assemblages of bodies, things, ideas and
social institutions, and the sexual capacities this flow produces. Using two empirical datasets, we explore the
sexuality assemblages of teen boys and young men, and the micropolitics of these assemblages. We find that the
sexuality produced in the bodies of young men is highly territorialised by various materialities. However, we also
reveal possibilities for resisting conventional hetero-masculinity, and reflect upon theory and policy implications.
Emotion and Masculinity: Awkward Bedfellows?
McQueen, F.
(University of Edinburgh)
There is a growing discourse around the 'emotionalisation of men', with little empirical research directly examining
whether a process of social change is taking place or not. Within the context of asking sixteen men about their couple
relationships this paper will consider the complex picture of how men experience and express their emotions and
feelings. It will be argued that the pressure on men to be more emotionally fluent is real, and often conflicts with
experiences of and performances of masculinity. the voices of the men interviewed will be used to highlight the
multitude of ways these men embody their emotions and how these experiences impact on their emotional
105 BSA Annual Conference 2015
Glasgow Caledonian University