'The Cutting Edge of Cocking About'1: Top Gear, Automobility And
'The Cutting Edge of Cocking About': Top Gear, Automobility and Law Author Tranter, Kieran, Martin, Damien Published 2013 Journal Title Law and Humanities DOI https://doi.org/10.5235/17521483.7.1.1 Copyright Statement © 2013 Hart Publishing. This is the author-manuscript version of this paper. Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal's website for access to the definitive, published version. Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/10072/55596 Griffith Research Online https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au 1 ‘The Cutting Edge of Cocking About’ : Top Gear, Automobility and Law Kieran Tranter and Damien Martin* ABSTRACT This paper argues that the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) television series Top Gear (2002-) presents a significant opportunity to think about automobility, masculinity and law. As a show about cars and car culture it can be seen, and dismissed, as a gratuitous celebration of ‘combustion masculinity.’ However, its irony, humour and nostalgia combine to highlight that this way of being male lies in the past. Focusing on Top Gear series 13 (June-August 2009) it is argued that the essence of combustion masculinity lies not only in risk and competition but law. However, the show goes further. In its excessive performance of combustion masculinity it engages in gentle critique. In the post-industrial era where the motor vehicle’s cultural status is declining Top Gear is itself a vehicle allowing combustion masculinity to be overtaken by less risky, less violent and more lawful ways of being male. Keywords: automobility, law, Top Gear, masculinity, irony INTRODUCTION Scholarship on ‘automobility’ has been broad, defining automobility as not just machine-human interactions but the cultural and physical spaces constructed for and by automobiles.2 Within this context exploration of automobility has often considered gender.
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