Fra metro til retro? Maskuliniteter i norsk populærkultur på 2000-tallet
Doctoral thesis
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Fra metro til retro? Maskuliniteter i norsk populærkultur på 2000-tallet by Fredrik Langeland, Stavanger : University of Stavanger, 2014 (PhD thesis UiS, no. 238)Sammendrag
This thesis is concerned with the emergence of, and tensions between,
«new» and «traditional» masculinities in Norwegian popular culture in
the 2000s. It focuses particularly on metrosexuality, which signifies a
preoccupation with appearance and a new «looked-at-ness» for young
men, and retrosexuality, a more traditionally oriented and explicitly
heterosexual figure with a penchant for nostalgia. These two concepts,
coined by the British journalist and writer Mark Simpson, were initially
seen as different versions of idealized masculinity. During the 2000s
they became popularized as media discourses and used as marketing
tools. British soccer player David Beckham has been particularly
influential as the leading metrosexual icon.
These two masculinities were introduced and disseminated in
Norwegian popular culture during the 2000s, and the thesis addresses
specific articulations in which both transnational and local cultural
norms and attitudes are being expressed in a specific context. A
particular analytical focus is directed toward how representations in
popular culture are entangled with the contemporary Norwegian
political and cultural climate, with an emphasis on gender equality
regimes in a postmodern media context. This backdrop is important for
analyzing potential conflicts and antagonisms that emerge in the
relation between metrosexuality and retrosexuality.
Empirically, the thesis analyzes a variety of forms in linguistic
and visual media, such as TV programs, photographs, magazines and
newspaper articles. In methodological terms, it makes use of textual
and discourse analysis as developed within cultural studies.
Theoretically, it positions itself mainly within masculinity studies and
cultural studies, and enters into critical dialogue with Raewyn Connell
and her seminal concept hegemonic masculinity. Through the launch of
three analytical concepts, the thesis intends to stimulate nuanced future
readings of masculinities in contemporary popular culture.
The thesis consists of four articles with an introduction. Article
1 and 2 focus mainly on retrosexuality, while article 3 and 4 focus on
metrosexuality. In the first article, the Norwegian TV program
«Manshow», which was aired on the commercial channel TV2 Zebra
from 2006 to 2009, provides an opportunity to analyze conflicts
concerning masculinities in Norwegian popular culture at that time.
«Manshow» was a TV program with an explicit male chauvinistic
profile and an emphasis on heterosexual male bonding. Through a close
reading of the premiere of the show’s first episode in 2006, the article
emphasizes how «Manshow» creates a space where men have free
access to enjoyment, through activities such as drinking beer and
objectifying women. This is made possible by the use of irony, or what
is characterized as the reflexive nostalgia of masculinity.
The second article argues that warrior masculinity has become
influential in Norwegian contemporary media and popular culture in
the 2000s. It focuses specifically on the men’s magazine Alfa, launched
in 2010, which gave rise to a media debate on the representation of
Norwegian soldiers in Afghanistan. The soldiers were presented in the
magazine as warriors who stated that killing people was better than sex.
Warrior masculinity is not unique to Alfa; it can also be seen in other
areas of Norwegian contemporary culture, in popular practices such as
«paintball» and «airsoft». To grasp the continuum between different
aspects of warrior masculinity, the article therefore launches the
concept of imaginary warriors.
Article three analyzes metrosexuality as a broad cultural
phenomenon in Norwegian popular culture in the 2000s. In 2002
metrosexuality was presented in the Norwegian media, as a
characteristic of the self-absorbed and narcissistic «new» man. A few
years later, in 2006, the Norwegian handballer Kristian Kjelling was
depicted in a manner similar to the British soccer player David
Beckham, in an advertising campaign for the tanning salon company
«Brun og Blid». Metrosexuality was now also to be seen in many areas
of Norwegian popular culture. At the same time an antimetrosexual
reaction surfaced. The article presents the concept of post-traditional
masculinity, to contextualize the potentially challenging aspects of
metrosexuality, vis-à-vis essentialist notions of masculinity.
The fourth article is co-written with Finnish researcher Jan
Wickman, and discusses variations in the definitions of metrosexuality
by analyzing contrasting examples of six sexualized media
representations of athletes from three Nordic countries: Finland,
Norway, and Sweden. The Nordic region is made up of nation-states of
similar size, with relatively similar social systems and, perhaps most
importantly in this context, parallel gender cultures. The article
highlights the intersection of the global and the local in the
representations of metrosexuality, but underscores the importance of
national context and national identity while analyzing images of male
athletes.
Beskrivelse
Doktoravhandling i kjønnsforskning.
Består av
Langeland, F. 2011. «Maskulinitetens refleksive nostalgi i Tv2 Zebras Manshow». Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning 35 (4): 275-292.Langeland, F. 2012. «Soldater med lyst til å drepe. Krigermaskulinitet i mannebladet Alfa». Norsk medietidsskrift 19 (4): 312-333.
Langeland, F. 2013. «Se på meg. Metroseksualitet i norsk populærkultur». I: Mühleisen, W. og Lorentzen, J. (red.): Å være sammen. Intimitetens nye vilkår. Oslo: Akademika forlag.
Wickman, J. og Langeland, F. 2013. «Metrosexuality as a body discourse. Masculinity and Sports Stars in Global and Local Contexts». I: Jafar, A. og Casanova, E. (red.): Global Beauty. Local Bodies. London: Palgrave Macmillan.