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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 790

Part of General Paper Session (Other abstracts in this session)

A sociolinguistic analysis of urban masculinities, language, and violence

Authors: Lawson, Robert George
Submitted by: Lawson, Robert George (Birmingham City University, United Kingdom)

Over the past fifty years, a large body of research has argued that masculinity and violence are closely related, especially in Western society, with particular focus being paid on the position of violence and delinquency in the lives of urban adolescent males (Regoli, Hewitt & Delisa 2009). While it is clear that this research has contributed a great deal to our understanding of the apparent centrality of violence (real or perceived) in the lives of urban adolescent males, much of it has neglected (or only tangentially considered) the role played by language in relation to masculinity and violence. This is a particularly important point to address since not only are urban males often assumed to engage in anti-social, violent and criminal practices, but this orientation is expected to be enacted through their language (cf. Quinn 2004). Thus, being a ‘violent urban adolescent male’ (primarily characterized through the idea of the ‘hard man’, an individual who embodies an ideology of violence, aggression and toughness, Young 2007), presupposes that an individual will mark this out through how they use language.

Through an analysis of urban adolescent males narratives of interpersonal violence collected during a three year ethnographic study of a high school in Glasgow, Scotland, this paper aims to problematize the notion that violence is an intrinsic part of ‘being a man’, particularly in post-industrial urban cities. I consider how ‘toughness’ is communicated and constructed in narratives, how it is rejected and  reformulated within urban adolescent male communities, and outline some of the ways in which urban adolescent males conceptualize ‘tough’ masculinities in their day-to-day lives.

This paper contributes to the ongoing dialogue regarding the contemporary concern of ‘tough’ masculinities in urban contexts and offers a critique on the role language plays in constructing such masculinities. 

References

Quinn, Patrick 2004. Easterhouse 2004: An Ethnographic Account of Men’s Experience, Use and Refusal of Violence, unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Glasgow

Regoli, Robert, John Dewitt & Matt Delisi 2009. Delinquency in Society: 8^th Edition. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

Young, Hilary (2007). Hard man/new man: Re/composing masculinities in Glasgow C.1950 - 2000. Oral History 35(1):  71 - 81.