Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2006, Page 45

EINAFERÐ VÓRU MENN
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stereotypes of modera masculinity, but the
fragmented world of our times displays
many contesting styles and types of mas-
culinity, depending on the mens’ social, cul-
tural, ethnic or religious background, as well
as their age group (Connell, 2005). Young
men belong to different subcultures with
varied presentations of gender differences,
intergenerational communication, sexual
identities, and manliness (Whitehead and
Barrett, 2001:2-26).
What is masculinity? The nearest that we get
to an ‘answer’ is to state that masculinities
are those behaviours, languages and prac-
tices, existing in specifíc cultural and organi-
zational locations, which are commonly
associated with males and thus culturally
defíned as not feminine (op. cit.)
Faroese society changed radically during the
20,h century, especially during the last
decades of the century, and is today regarded
as a latemodern society, quite similar to
other Nordic countries, even if the oceanic
archipelago has kept crucial cultural bonds
to its dim prehistory of maritime hunters
(Gaini, 2006). Most young men still iden-
tify themselves with their ancestors, even if
everyday life anno 2006 is very different
from childhoods at the beginning of the 20lh
century and earlier eras. It is common to de-
scribe latemodem reflexive society as a frag-
mented and individualized system. The shift
to latemodern society is associated to the
growing scope of communication and co-
operation between countries and regions
around the globe (e.g. Bauman, 1998; 2000;
2004; Beck, 1992; Giddens, 1990; 1991;
1998).
My hypotheses is therefore that young
people are encouraged - even forced - to
emancipate from static primordial family
and local community identity bonds, lience
also determined to form their own cultural
identity out of personal preferences and
strategies. In other words people do not
merely belong to cultures anymore, they ac-
tively choose cultural affiliation. I argue that
all existing masculinities in the Faroe Islands
represent subcultural adaptations to con-
temporary society and that all masculinities
in different ways have roots in a Faroese cul-
tural heritage, even if the global influence,
as we will see, is stronger among the urban
youth than the Atlantic cowboys.
This article opens with a presentation of
the past centuries’ Faroese men emphasis-
ing their working life and society’s harsh
natural environment.
Thereafter four categories of young men
are portrayed: Atlantic cowboys, urban (Eu-
ropean) youth, lonestars, and glocal prag-
matics. The two main categories, the At-
lantic cowboys and urban youth, represent
masculinities in the dominant local and
global youth cultures, while the two minor
categories, lonestars and glocal pragmatics,
either combine traits of the main mascu-
linities or stay peripherally positioned out-
side mainstream culture. The categories are
not emic but etic, as young Faroese men do
not explicitly use the same concepts or def-
initions as I do, even if they indeed discuss
the styles, values and symbols that are pre-
sented in this text. Investigating masculini-
lies 1 delimit several types of Faroese men,
all of them adaptations to latemodern soci-
ety. Identity is never constructed a priori,