78 - Tell it like it is. Truth, masculinity, affect and nation
21. Men in the post-factual world – masculinity revisited1
1 Södertörn University
In my presentation, I will explore the concept of parrhesia, as addressed by Foucault in his late works, to understand certain strategies employed by white men in contemporary Sweden. Parrhesia is, in his sense, a special form of public truth-telling that, at the risk of one´s own person and position, had the goal to change the ethos. To change the ethics by telling it like it is. The whistle blower´s activity is an example of parrhesiastic speech.
Some white men, often with sympathies for far right parties, engage in this kind of truth-telling, or at least so it seems. The label “offended white men” (vita kränkta män) has been used to describe those men whose activities consists in i.e. trolling on social me-dia – threatening and abusing women and non-whites/non-Swedes. Their arguments often form a disbelief in the democratic system, and critique of the feminist or multi-cultural versions of society that seems to offer them and their kind of masculinity no space.
Directed at changing society, often with an image of a glorious past in mind, they act in indignation over the “politically corrects” incapacity to accept their world views. They recurrently state that their views cannot be expressed “in this country”, although the anonymity on the Internet seem to offer them an arena to do so.
In what ways can these practices of truth-telling be understood as a way of crafting mas-culinity? And could this way of crafting masculinity be perceived as “active citizenship”?
directed at the Swedish-speaking population in Finland. The quotes often contain de-scriptions of Swedish (speaking) men as unmanly, ‘gay-looking’ and feminist wimps, whereas the entry writer takes pride in being at ‘real Finn’ and a ‘real man’. What does being a real man implicate in this particular context? Why does it seem so important to stress ones masculinity or manliness in a discussion about language and national iden-tity? While the anonymous writers emphasize their own masculinity and laugh at the Swedish men’s imagined lack thereof, the public discussion about hate speech revolves around stereotypes related to a particular kind of men, usually stereotypically portrayed as uneducated and unemployed. In my paper, I intend to address the connection be-tween the rise of the nationalist movement, populism and masculinity.
80 - The masculinity of male marital name change
21. Men in the post-factual world – masculinity revisited Line Grønstad11 Cultural studies, Department of archaeology, history, cultural studies and religion, University in Bergen, Norway
In 1923, Norwegian men could no longer take their wife’s last name. Not until 1980 where they allowed to change their names on equal basis as women. Wom-en, on the other hand, had to take their husband’s name during the same period. This, seemingly outdated practice, continues, despite gender neutral naming laws, even now, almost 40 years later. Few men (6%) change their names in heterosexual marriages, the gender hierarchy in the family, at least the different statuses of the names. This is highlighted in the ridicule male name changers have met from other men. The name symbols who is in charge in the family. According to the jokes the use of a wife’s name warrants smiles and comments, thus questioning the masculinity of the changers.
I have collected stories about last name choices from around 160 men through qualita-tive questionnaires and interviews, 60 of which took the last names of their wife’s. In this paper, I will explore the relationship men see between last names and their nuclear families. My question is: How do ideas of masculinity come to play in the men’s stories in relation to names and nuclear family?
Whereas certain ideals of masculinity are toxic, especially the men who have taken their wife’s last name provide alternative ideas of what masculinity can be, and include
tradi-21. Men in the post-factual world – masculinity revisited Katarzyna Herd1
1 Lund University
Team sports like football or hockey are played by both men and women, but it is the male version of sports that attract much more media attention, money and spectators. Faster, tougher, and more skillful athletic performance are the characteris-tics that are listed by fans who prefer to see men running on pitches than women. The physical masculinity is also translated into cultural expressions, and activities as foot-ball can construct and communicate a certain version of masculinity that is based on to the lines on the pitch. Supporter crowds, consisting mainly of men, face evaluations expressions of masculinity – rough songs and chants, abusive language, drinking beer, violent outbursts (both physical and symbolic) have been used in media for creating an image of a male football fan.
have spent several years observing men, women, and reevaluating my own positioning.
In my presentation, I would like to explore this narrative of certain masculinity that took over popular imagination, and its implications for spectators of both sexes.
Narrating a Climate Changed Future 1
Camilla Asplund Ingemark1, Lone Ree Milkær2
1 Institutionen för kulturantropologi och etnologi, Uppsala Universitet, Sverige
2 Institut for arkeologi, historie, kultur- og religionsvidenskab, Universitetet i Bergen, Norge
Climate change is not merely rising temperatures and sea levels, melting glaciers and extreme climate events. Climate change has become the dominant environ-mental narrative of our time and is intrinsically linked to human conditions and human experiences. Hence, the study of climate changes is also the study of lifeworlds, experi-ences and expectations.
How can we as humans imagine and narrate a climate changed future? How do we narrate global processes both exceeding our ability to experience changes and stretch-ing our comprehension of the timespan of change? How do we relate to changes that we both experience in our everyday life and yet do not experience at all? We know the changes are coming and we know that the human species is to blame. As a collective we continuously negotiate the possibilities of understanding and handling the changes in our various articulations of expectations of the future, in various arenas: media, poli-tics, everyday conversation, narratives, family life, consumption, dreams and hopes etc.
Nowhere is the tension between the predictable and the unexpected more present than in our narratives about a future we can only imagine based on our experiences, which the complex task of understanding the reality of climate change and how can we
In this panel we invite contributions that focus on climate change narratives.