Thinking with Bevereley Skeggs - Stockholms universitet

Drive-by Shaming: Reflectionson the Emotions of (Dangerous)Car DrivingDag BalkmarIt’s the power [of American muscle cars] you know, even though my caris no bad boy, the guys in Stockholm, if you’re waiting at a traffic light,they do not pull up alongside you. Even though they’ve got souped-upcars, they are insecure; they don’t know…this car may wipe the floorwith them, you know (Lars, owner of a Valiant V8, interviewed at thePower Big Meet 2007).Peder Andersen will regret that night in May last year for the rest of hislife. This was the night when his brother died. Driving with an alcohollevel of 2.09 per thousand Peder tried to escape the police but went offthe road at nearly 180 km/hour (The Swedish Road Administration,Vintergatan 2006).Speeding and competing through street racing on public roads area way of performing car driving on the ‘edge’, a motorised formof duelling for kicks and respect. To prove skilled enough to stayin control of highly risky and dangerous situations is a seriousgame for some men (and women) doing masculinity throughcar driving. Not only do such practices involve great threats toother road users and drivers, it may also encompass a wholerange of emotions. The seminar sessions with Beverley Skeggshave inspired me to discover the complexity of emotions at thecentre of my research on the co-constructions of masculinityand dangerous car driving. Emotions tend to occur whenexpectations and hopes are experienced to coincide or conflictwith the experienced realities. Such hopes, realities, expectationsand experiences thereof are gendered and socially constructed,rather than psychological or individual given states (Hearn9