Thinking with Bevereley Skeggs - Stockholms universitet

2007). Drawing on Hearn (2007), emotions may be conceived ofas material-discursive processes that construct and contextualizeheightened embodied experiences and emotions that occur andcirculate in the social and material realm of traffic.During two summer days in 2007 I interviewed male carenthusiasts at the Power Big Meet, an annually held car show inthe Swedish medium-sized town of Västerås. Famous for being‘the biggest American car show’ in the world, the event attractsapproximately 20,000 people interested in car cruising, partyingand older American cars. Below I explore emotions of shame inrelation to the car enthusiasts’ stories of (dangerous) driving andmaterial from the Swedish Road Administration.Following Ahmed (2004: 103–105), to be ashamed is tobe witnessed in one’s failure, putting the appearance in frontof and to others at centre stage. Dangerous driving is a socialphenomenon; speeding and racing are performed in the gaze ofothers, in relation to other drivers and audiences located insideor outside the car. Street racing encompasses mixed emotionsrelated to the ‘honour of winning’ and the ‘shame of losing’,even though this may vary depending on the situation and thecontext. Despite experiences of shame, such emotions may alsoconfirm the commitment to the ideals prevalent in a communityof drivers ‘up for racing’. As a community between ‘racers’,the shared interests in traditional masculine activities, such ascompetition, risk taking and measuring, form a homosocial arenathat structure hierarchies between men (and, to large extent, alsoexclude women). Failure to live up to such gendered ideals maybe conceived of as confirming its necessity (Ahmed 2004: 106).In the excerpts above two important aspects of masculinity arehighlighted that link shame and racing in the streets – a ‘span ofshame’ if you like. The first excerpt underscores the importanceof knowledge about cars, a traditional masculine domain ofknowledge. To know what kinds of cars you may challenge tostand a chance of ‘winning’ also involves predicting the risk ofbeing shamed. Only the ignorant and foolish challenge a more10