Masculinity constructing among street workout youth in post-Soviet Dagestan

Abstract

Based on a case study of a street workout community in post-Soviet Dagestan, I show how young underclass men construct and negotiate their masculinities in a transitional society. Processes of deindustrialization and urbanization destabilize the gender order and problematize the legitimate ways of ‘achieving’ masculinity. Street workout athletes use the global cultural (post-sports) practice to articulate, prove and perform their masculinity styles and scenarios, which correspond both to the norms of the local and global hegemonic models. They pursue ‘leisure careers’ of professionally successful men and represent a strong, but not aggressive corporeality distancing themselves from marginalizing practices of street violence.