Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Communication Dissertations Department of Communication Summer 6-27-2012 "Doing it For The Dudes": A Comparative Ethnographic Study of Performative Masculinity in Heavy Metal and Hardcore Subcultures John Ike Sewell Jr. Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_diss Recommended Citation Sewell, John Ike Jr., ""Doing it For The Dudes": A Comparative Ethnographic Study of Performative Masculinity in Heavy Metal and Hardcore Subcultures." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2012. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_diss/36 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Communication at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “DOING IT FOR THE DUDES”: A COMPARATIVE ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF PERFORMATIVE MASCULINITY IN HEAVY METAL AND HARDCORE SUBCULTURES by J. IKE SEWELL Under the Direction of Dr. Marian Meyers ABSTRACT This ethnographic study compares and contrasts performative masculinities of the male- dominated heavy metal (HM) and hardcore (HC) subcultures. Conclusions derived from this research indicate the following: identities associated with HM and HC conflate masculinity with working-classness; HM and HC identities (and thus masculinities) are merging at present; participation in HM and HC enclaves can serve to symbolically marginalize constituents, and this symbolic marginalization can result in repercussions in the lived world outside of subculture; the hegemonic masculinity of HM and HC subcultures is double-edged masculinity , meaning that it supports the male-dominated structure of mainstream culture without empowering HM and HC males in an extra-subcultural sense; and that despite these negative ramifications, HM and HC participants still find the shared identities and community interaction of these enclaves to be empowering. INDEX WORDS: Heavy metal, Hardcore, Subculture, Masculinity, Performativity, Gender, Class, Ideology, Rock music, Identity, Double-edged masculinity, Proud pariah “DOING IT FOR THE DUDES”: A COMPARATIVE ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF PERFORMATIVE MASCULINITY IN HEAVY METAL AND HARDCORE SUBCULTURES by J. IKE SEWELL A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2012 Copyright by J. Ike Sewell 2012 “DOING IT FOR THE DUDES”: A COMPARATIVE ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF PERFORMATIVE MASCULINITY IN HEAVY METAL AND HARDCORE SUBCULTURES by J. IKE SEWELL Committee Chair: Marian J. Meyers Committee: Tomasz Tabako Ted Friedman Patricia G. Davis Megan J. Sinnott Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University August 2012 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Topmost on my thank you list is Dr. Marian Meyers, who was brave enough to step at a crucial juncture. Thank you, Dr. Meyers, for your righteous (but not self-righteous) insights, patience, accessibility and positivity through what may probably seemed an arduous and thankless undertaking. If karma points are ever handed out, you’ll get yours. But as we have already established, no good deed goes unpunished. Special thanks go to Dr. Tomasz Tabako, my first mentor at Georgia State who introduced me to rhetorical theory and inspired me to take a different academic direction at the beginning of my doctoral studies. Your intellect is so astounding that it’s almost scary—but you temper this daunting brainpower with charm and style. I’ll never meet anyone else who is even remotely like you, a stellar mind. Thanks goes to Drs. Patricia Davis and Ted Friedman, both of whom were willing to step in at the point where it was necessary to reconfigure the dissertation committee. I hardly knew either of you when I asked that you join the committee—and both of you have gone beyond the proverbial call of duty by joining. Your participation helped greatly to reinvigorate this project. I thank Dr. Megan Sinnott from Georgia State’s Women’s Studies Institute for joining the committee as an outsider. Your Feminist Theory class in 2009 was one of the most illuminating experiences of my time at GSU. In that class, I felt as if I had been given a special key to access women’s experience. I also especially appreciate your willingness to critique this dissertation while in Thailand on vacation. Once again, someone has overstepped the bounds of duty. v Special thanks go to my perfect parents, Rebecca and Ike Sewell. Both educators and scholars, you knew what a difficult task doctoral study would be and unselfishly lavished me with kind words and unending emotional support through this process. Thank you for your patience and eternal love. Of course, I would like to thank my perfect partner, Stacy Fentress. Without you I never would have even started graduate school, let alone enter a Ph.D. program. Like my perfect parents, you’re always there no matter what. Unlike my perfect parents, you’re a rock’n’roller, my punk rock queen. You rule. A host of individuals have somehow aided my writing this dissertation, many of whom will unfortunately go unacknowledged. Writing this work was a long and laborious process, and many who were not formally involved in this process such as library aides, Georgia State University Department of Communication staff, and just people who were nice to me in day-to- day interactions during the stressful period of writing this have somehow spurred me along my way. Thank you. I would like to thank all of the metal and hardcore kids who participated in this study. And I would like to thank all the dudes . Finally and eternally, And I would like to thank rock’n’roll itself, my power source. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................... v LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ x 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 1 2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE .......................................................................................... 9 Culture and Ideology ........................................................................................................ 9 From Culture to Subculture ........................................................................................... 17 From Subculture Studies to Fan Studies ...................................................................... 25 “Secret realm devotion”: Heavy Metal and Hardcore as Carnivalesque Inversion . 30 “The Devil’s Crossroads”: Merging the Ethnographic with the Rhetorical ............. 33 “The Kids Will Have Their Say”: Defining Hardcore ................................................. 35 “Blood, Fire, Death”: Defining Heavy Metal ................................................................ 41 Intersectionality ............................................................................................................... 46 Performative Masculinity in Heavy Metal and Hardcore ........................................... 50 Compulsory Heterosexuality and Latent Homoeroticism in Heavy Metal and Hardcore .......................................................................................................................... 63 “Cometh Down Hessian”: Defining Whiteness ............................................................ 66 Middle-Class Simulation of the Working-Class Mien: Class in Heavy Metal and Hardcore .............................................................................. 72 3. METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................................... 84 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ................................................................................ 106 “Slave to the Grind”: Double-Edged Masculinity ...................................................... 107 viii Outing Myself: A Truncated Autobiography of 30 Years in Subculture ................ 108 “The Unholy Trinity”: Three emergent Trends in Heavy Metal and Hardcore, Circa 2012 ...................................................................................................................... 111 “Caught in a Mosh”: The Moshpit as Proving Ground ............................................ 113 Idealized Bodies and subculture-Specific Moshpit Practices of Heavy Metal and Hardcore ...................................................................................... 114 “Who Cares Unless It’s a Girl?”: Gender Distinctions in the Moshpit ................... 117 Transgression and Conformity in the Moshpit .......................................................... 121 “The Brotherhood of Metal dudes”: Camaraderie in the Moshpit .......................... 124 “Small Man, Big Mouth”: Heavy Metal and Hardcore as Masculine Speech Communities .............................................................................. 126 “Forged in Fire, Bonded by Blood”: Demographic Makeup of Heavy Metal and Hardcore Subcultures ........................................................................................... 129 “Brats in Battalions, Boys in the Brigade”: Heavy Metal and Hardcore