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Global Masculinities Edited by Michael Kimmel and Judith Kegan Gardiner

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Global Masculinities Edited by Michael Kimmel and Judith Kegan Gardiner Global Masculinities Edited by Michael Kimmel and Judith Kegan Gardiner Michael Kimmel is Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is the author or editor of more than twenty books, including: Men’s Lives , Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men , The Gendered Society , The Politics of Manhood , and Manhood in America: A Cultural History. He edits Men and Masculinities , an interdisciplinary scholarly journal, and edited the Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities and the Handbook of Studies on Men and Masculinities. He consults with corporations, NGOs, and public sector organizations all over the world on gender equity issues, including work-family balance, reducing workplace discrimination, and promoting diversity. Judith Kegan Gardiner is Professor of English and of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her books are Craftsmanship in Context: The Development of Ben Jonson’s Poetry and Rhys, Stead, Lessing, and the Politics of Empathy. She is the editor of the volumes Provoking Agents: Gender and Agency in Theory and Practice ; Masculinity Studies and Feminist Theory; and a co-editor of the International Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities . She is also a member of the editorial board for the interdisciplinary journal Feminist Studies . Published by Palgrave Macmillan: Masculine Style: The American West and Literary Modernism By Daniel Worden Men and Masculinities Around the World: Transforming Men’s Practices Edited by Elisabetta Ruspini, Jeff Hearn, Bob Pease, and Keith Pringle Constructions of Masculinity in British Literature from the Middle Ages to the Present Edited by Stefan Horlacher Becoming the Gentleman: British Literature and the Invention of Modern Masculinity, 1660–1815 By Jason D. Solinger Men and Masculinities in Irish Cinema By Debbie Ging The History of Fatherhood in Norway, 1850–2012 By Jørgen Ludvig Lorentzen Masculinity and Monstrosity in Contemporary Hollywood Films By Kirk Combe and Brenda Boyle Stars and Masculinities in Contemporary Italian Cinema By Catherine O’Rawe Alternative Masculinities for a Changing World Edited by À ngels Carabí and Josep M. Armengol Masculinities in Black and White: Manliness and Whiteness in (African) American Literature Josep M. Armengol Italian Masculinity as Queer Melodrama: Caravaggio, Puccini, Contemporary Cinema By John Champagne Masculinities and the Nation in the Modern World: Between Hegemony and Marginalization Edited by Pablo Dominguez Andersen and Simon Wendt Masculinities in Literature of the American West By Lydia R. Cooper Coping and Suicide amongst the Lads: Expectations of Masculinity in Post-Traditional Ireland By Felicia Garcia COPING AND SUICIDE AMONGST THE LADS Expectations of Masculinity in Post-Traditional Ireland Felicia Garcia palgrave macmillan COPING AND SUICIDE AMONGST THE LADS Copyright © Felicia Garcia 2016 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2016 978-1-137-53032-5 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission. In accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 2016 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN The author has asserted their right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of Nature America, Inc., One New York Plaza, Suite 4500, New York, NY 10004-1562. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. ISBN 978-1-349-70847-5 E-PDF ISBN: 978–1–137–53033–2 DOI: 10.1057/9781137530332 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Garcia, Felicia, author. Title: Coping and suicide amongst the lads : expectations of masculinity in post-traditional Ireland / Felicia Garcia. Description: New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. | Series: Global masculinities | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2015028211 | Subjects: LCSH: Suicide—Ireland. | Young men—Suicidal behavior— Ireland. | Young men—Ireland—Social conditions. | Working class men—Ireland—Social conditions. | Masculinity—Ireland. | BISAC: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural. | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Customs & Traditions. | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Men’s Studies. | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Death & Dying. Classification: LCC HV6548.I73 G37 2016 | DDC 362.28084/2109417— dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015028211 A catalogue record for the book is available from the British Library. This is dedicated to the lads—my dear, dear friends in Cork. For showing me such generosity and the best craic I have ever had in my life! Thank ye all so much! Also, massive thanks to Damian, Damian, Theo, my mother, and of course, “my girls” This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Figures ix Preface xi 1 Introduction 1 2 Theorizing Social Change in Ireland 33 3 Low-income Youth: Autonomy and Independence 57 4 Neo-Traditional Masculinity and Social Change 89 5 Policing and Schooling Gender Appropriate Behavior 125 6 Consuming the Craic, Destroying the Body 163 7 Concluding Discussion 199 Notes 217 Bibliography 223 Index 231 This page intentionally left blank Figures 1.1 Eastgate Retail Park I 6 1.2 Eastgate Retail Park II 7 1.3 Eastgate Retail Park III 7 4.1 Fuck Work 108 6.1 Premium Dutch 180 7.1 Tracks into Cork City 199 This page intentionally left blank Preface Thoughts on Gender Equity and Feminism A Contrastive Perspective In my early twenties in my home country of Sweden, I went through my “voluntary/activist-phase.” I joined one women’s organization that operated on an international and national level that sticks to mind to this day. I will not name the organization but I want to describe what happened at one of their yearly meetings in Stockholm—the only meeting I attended. The room was full of people but the odd thing was this: There were only women in the room except for one man. A women’s organization, it seemed, does exactly what it says on the tin. The aim was to run an organization for women and not to promote equality between the sexes–something that could and should involve women and men. The membership, it turned out, was to be based on sex rather than shared concerns for equality and fair- ness between women and men. One important issue on the agenda was that of male membership. It was about whether the organization should accept male members—should they be allowed to join, sup- port, or help fund the organization at all? I can only imagine what the only man in the room, who looked like he came from Latin America, must have felt like. He was obviously there because he was a sup- porter of gender equality and equal rights for women. The man even- tually stood up and walked toward the door. He stood there for just a moment looking in. I had the most awkward feeling. When he finally decided to leave I was overwhelmed with shame and disgust. I still regret not doing something “outrageous” like telling these women how incredibly wrong this was, or leaving myself. Mac Giolla Bhain is a journalist who has taken a leading role in the Irish Men’s Movement and in the struggle to combat the prevalence of suicide among Irish men. In 2008 Mac Giolla Bhain came out xii PREFACE with a book called Preventable Death: The Scandal of Male Suicide in Modern Ireland . Mac Giolla Bhain’s discussion centers on what women and feminism do and have done to harm men. The discussion in this book centers on how relationships between specific group- ings of men (the lads) instruct, or even determine, what is said, felt, and expressed amongst the lads and how male social networks and coping mechanisms differ from young women’s. Mac Giolla Bhain and I share a deep and genuine concern for what has become a male suicide epidemic in Ireland. As it stands, to date, the gender ratio in suicide in Ireland is 5:1, meaning that for every female suicide there are five male suicides. Although we both recognize the depreciation of, I would say certain forms of masculinity in Irish society (and else- where), we seem to differ in just what might be the causes behind Irish men’s particular vulnerability to suicide. Mac Giolla Bhain’s main criticism is aimed toward the common- sense in Irish society that women are always the victims of domestic abuse and never the perpetrators, that women should always be the custodial parents after a marriage break up, and that a child of a non- married couple automatically “belongs” to the mother. These facts are wrong and outrageous! Mac Giolla Bhain and I argue against these assumptions regarding maternity, paternity, violence, and victimiza- tion. Mac Giolla Bhain does however believe in the assumed nature of masculinity and femininity as merely biological, and therefore also life destinies. He insists that gender differences cannot be socially “engineered away” solely because “the state has the will and deploys enough resources towards a utopia of gender equality” (Mac Giolla Bhain 2008:287). The fundamental differences between women and men he says are “hardwired into the brain” (289). The above commonsense statements rendering men and fathers superfluous to society is not, this book argues, gender equality—it is the complete opposite! It is hardly contestable that women and men—people—are the result of biology and that we are shaped by the social world around us.
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