Young men, masculinity and alcohol

Abstract

Over the last ten years we have witnessed a great increase in writing on the nature of masculinity and the development of the concept of multiple masculinities, but much of this material has been speculative and highly theoretical. The related work linking masculinities to alcohol has often had a psychometric slant. The current paper aims to show the wider relevance of new theoretical ideas on masculinities to alcohol consumption among young men. Specifically: to describe the social context of drinking and drunkenness among a sample of young men living in Greater Glasgow, and to analyse the masculine role component of such contemporary drinking cultures. A qualitative methodology was used. Ten focus groups and twelve in-depth ‘life-trajectory’ interviews were completed. Respondents were aged between 16 and 24 years. We discovered that the social context of male drinking is changing very rapidly and masculinities are being redefined. While there remains some evidence of traditional masculine drinking norms and alcohol use, the increasing diversity of drinking locations and alcohol products are instrumental in achieving new expressions of male identity among young men.