Abstract
In this paper, drawing on ethnographic observations and using the case study of one working-class young man called Jimmy, I explore how multiple masculinities are displayed through a process of chameleonisation. Through outlining Jimmy’s transitions through post-compulsory education and his different social and cultural spaces, I illustrate the ways which he tries to conduct multiple performances of self. I show that in a variety of settings, with different actors and within different social interactions, Jimmy navigates between numerous conflicts in order to try and achieve both academically, with aspirations of processing into higher education and also as a successful athlete. These processes are simultaneously met with demands to achieve a socially valued form of masculinity that has been shaped by the former industrial heritage of the region. This paper argues that young working-class men are not locked into displaying just one performance of masculinity, but have the agency to switch between performances and to adopt multiple identities. However, this process which I term chameleonisation, is fraught with difficulties. This process illustrates how we must begin to think about young men having the ability to display multiple masculinities at various times, and are therefore not the barer of one all-encompassing masculinity that is always, and everywhere, the same. This process can be especially challenging for young working-class men who live in areas of economic change and want to be successful across different areas of their lives.
Highlights
In this paper, drawing on ethnographic observations and using the case study of one working-class young man called Jimmy, I explore how multiple masculinities are displayed through a process of chameleonisation
This paper argues that young working-class men are not locked into displaying just one performance of masculinity, but have the agency to switch between performances and to adopt multiple identities
He rejected his first choice university, instead opting to go to a university which was closer to Cwm Dyffryn. His rationale for this, he told me, was that this way he could keep his part-time job at Domino’s Pizza, be close to his girlfriend Rhiannon and remain living at home. His running had petered out and he planned to start again when he went to university the following month, I felt that this would be difficult with the new pressures he would face as an undergraduate with an even busier social calendar
Summary
The research site, Cwm Dyffryn, was in an area of Wales that was once a major contributor to the British coal industry (Williams, 1985) and one of the largest industrial centres in the country. Young people from the area have become subject to social stigmatisation as a result of these social inequalities (Ward, 2014c) Given this background, a two and a half year Economic and Social Research Council funded ethnographic study was conducted, to explore the diversity of a group of white, working-class, young men living within this former industrial region. Different academic and vocational educational pathways framed the definition of the situation for these young men, learning what roles were expected of them when studying a certain subject or course and what was expected of people around them, resulting in classed and gendered implications that impact on their future life chances Outside their education institutions, the legacy of the region’s industrial past and the working-class cultural milieu of the locale, were re-embodied and re-traditionalised in different ways across other local sites and spaces (See Ward 2014a, 2014b, 2014c; Ward, 2015). As Goffman (1974, p. 573) reminds us, the ‘self, is not an entity half-concealed behind events, but a changeable formula for managing oneself during them’: so despite the social-economic barriers Jimmy faced as I will show in this paper, this young man was still involved in a constant practice of code-shifting which results in a form of what I term ‘chameleonisation’ occurring
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