Navigating Hypermasculine Terrains: Female Tactics for Safety and Social Mastery

Abstract

The study addresses how young women navigate urban terrains that are characterized by high levels of interpersonal aggression and crime. It is argued that young women apply a range of gendered tactics to establish safety and social mastery, and that these are framed by the limits and possibilities imposed by a street-based hypermasculine script. The analysis rests on an ethnographic study among 25 young Danish women aged 13 to 23 experienced in engaging in street-based physical violence. The study suggests that explorations of female tactics can provide a useful method of analysis for understanding female agency in (hyper)masculine social terrains.