Boys' Use of Visual Material Culture to Negotiate Local Masculinities

Abstract

This paper provides an analysis of the ways in which boys in a New York City, after-school club used visual material culture to negotiate aspects of their masculine identities. It draws upon a larger participatory visual-based ethnography that was originally intended to examine the ways in which youth in two communities (one in New York City and one in Yukon, Canada) used popular visual material culture in their everyday lives, and the role of local place in this process. Using an interdisciplinary conceptual framework, the author argues boys used visual material culture as a source and resource in making sense of, constructing, and negotiating local ideals of masculinity. In so doing, she begins to underline the complex relationship between youth lives and identities, visual material culture, and the local places they live with/in and through.