Thinking with Bevereley Skeggs - Stockholms universitet

Skoda as I am, my company car, and happen to get away a bit at the startwhen the light changes then, against a BMW, he gets really pissed off.He can’t let the Skoda pull away from him; instead he comes drivinglike a madman, this happens all the time. You just sit there and watch...Even though he was half asleep when the light turned green, that is notmy fault… this happens all the time. We drive a lot [as part of work], thestress in the traffic, talk about masculinity, that’s totally insane.Just as the car often is regarded as a masculine technology anda male territory, the way Lars refers to ‘everybody’ would beinterpreted as between men. Even though challenged in everydaylife, the cultural links between men, masculinity and dangerousdriving are still strong. However, this needs to be contrasted withthe specificities of cars and their relations to masculinities overdifferent class locations. Specific cars, signified as accessibleonly to the few, may display greater symbolic capital and statuscompared to others depending on the context.In Lars’ story, the specificity of cars and makes of car isemphasised, indicating not only the social position of the user,but also what specific makes afford in terms of ways of driving.The symbolic differences between the cars are part of the culturalresources signifying differentiation of class, status and limitationsin terms of speed and road performance. Put simply, the expensiveBMW signifies upper class and a wealthy owner, contrasted withthe ordinary, cheaper and less speedy Skoda, a car not owned byLars but the company he works for. As such, the car ‘acts’ as anextension of the driver’s socio-economic identity, and may alsocontribute to the experience of shame if a subject is seeking toapproximate a social ideal (see Ahmed 2004: 107).The story of Lars driving a ‘dull’ company car needs to berelated to the noisy powerful American car he drives at the ‘BigMeet’. Within this context his car displays cultural and economicvalue due to the often plentiful hours and money spent on theartefact. Furthermore, drawing on debates on such cars and usersin a Swedish context, the cultural value of older American carsmay signify vulgarity, youth rebellion, danger, sexuality and14