Getting respect: How minority boxers build a hybrid masculinity in a French Banlieue

Abstract

Based on an ethnographic study using participant observations and interviews in a Thai boxing gym in a marginalized urban area in France, this article explores the modes of masculine socialization of young, minority boxers from the lower classes. The study’s findings demonstrate that while boxers embrace a “marginalized” masculinity, they also increasingly develop a “respectable” form of masculinity. This study illustrates a case in which minority youths from marginalized urban areas build not only one deviant masculinity but also different types of masculinities that become hybrid. This process of gender construction both reinforces and challenges “traditional” masculinity among marginalized social groups.