`Neo-mateship' in the 21st century

Abstract

This article argues that `traditional mateship', as the everyday practice of men's same-sex friendships, is a dying mode of relating in Australian culture. Using Goffman's dramaturgical model, the views of three generations of men are used to qualitatively explore three proposed sites of transformation in men's same-sex friendships. First, the shift from unquestioning group loyalty to individualistic, transient and contingent relationship choice; second, the move from guarded levels of disclosure to open expressiveness and willingness to display vulnerability; and finally the evolution from expecting and giving only practical support to providing both practical and emotional support. The narratives of the middle-aged cohort are used to illustrate the various role-distance strategies that were used to resist and rework gender scripts. The article concludes that, although the parameters of acceptable gendered behaviours in Australian men's friendships are expanding, they have not yet reached the breadth and depth found in `pure' friendships, but could be described as a new type of mateship: neo-mateship.