The Emos: Alternative Masculinities?

Abstract

As I have shown in this book, the shift to adulthood for young working-class men in particular was once inextricably linked to labour. However, due to economic restructuring over the past half century, in places like Cwm Dyffryn working-class young men are now no longer likely to directly enter employment after formal schooling, but to continue into post-16 education. In Chapters 3 and 4, The Valley Boiz and The Geeks both highlight different perspectives on these changes and opposing performances of working-class masculinity. The Valley Boiz tended to adopt older masculine practices through selecting specific ‘masculine’ educational subjects and engaging in risky leisure activities, to maintain a legacy of the industrial past and to ensure they are connected to their community. For The Geeks, their more studious performances of masculinity through academic achievement, was a way to find solace from a community they did not feel they belonged to and an escape route to what they saw as more successful futures. However, as I argued these front displays of masculinity, were also contradicted by other displays depending on the audience around them and the setting they found themselves in, highlighting how a degree of complexity and fluidity accompanied these performances.