To be a Man is Not a Day’s Job: The Discursive Construction of Hegemonic Masculinity by Rural Youth in Nigeria

Abstract

This article explores the discursive construction of hegemonic masculine ideologies which are recreated and reinforced in the daily lives and social contexts of rural youth in southern Cross River State, South-eastern Nigeria. In this study, I demonstrate how these youth reinscribe stereotyped patriarchal ideologies through the performance of hegemonic masculinity in their social engagements particularly involving nicknaming practices, alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, risky sexual/social behaviour and the perpetration of a culture of violence in their community of practice. To address this concern, I adopt an ethnographic qualitative design that gains insights from participant observations, focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews with twenty-two participants. The article highlights the discursive representation of hegemonic masculinity through participants’ socially situated practices and the broader network of meaning that is ascribed in depicting this facet of masculinity which subjugates other forms of masculinities. Other young men who do not subscribe to hegemonic masculine ideals are often labelled, socially excluded and marginalised in their traditional patriarchal environment. The study concludes that rural youth utilize their social contexts as resources for mobilization in the (re)construction of different modes of belonging and reproduction of dominant masculine scripts which perpetuate gender inequality and intolerance.