Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2006, Page 61

EINAFERÐ VORU MENN
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anthropological identity defínitions - e.g.
ethnic and national. Self-identity is based on
recognition and ascribed identifícation. This
is very clear regarding the main groups: At-
lantic cowboys and urban (European) youth;
they fíght a symbolic cultural power strug-
gle stressing differences “that make a dif-
ference” (Bateson, 1973). Even if the narnes
‘cowboys’ and ‘urban youth’ give strong as-
sociations to specifíc types of men I have
not concentrated on extreme male identities
and masculinities - e.g. hypermasculinity
(Jensen, 2005). The categories in this text
accommodate several subcultures. All cate-
gories involve mral and urban regions, local
and global cultural influence, traditional and
(late)modern society, sexist and tolerant at-
fítudes, even if the pattems regarding these
positions varies markedly depending on the
niasculinity category in focus.
Cowboys are neither premodern nor late-
modern; they connect different eras uncon-
sciously but have in general limited interest
ln history and folklore, as they are neither
traditionalists nor intellectual cosmopoli-
tans. They are provincial pragmatic work-
mg-class men waiting for holidays to bring
action and adventure into life, thereafter
happily returning to the conventional and
safe order of life.
Urban youth is the most expanding group
°f men in the Faroe Islands. They are dom-
mant among teenagers anno 2006 as their
1 'festyles have gained strong recognition and
Popularity through media in general and
growing global influence on Faroese youth
,n particular. The proud Atlantic cowboys
are becoming older and more peripheral,
even if they still are very noisy in the pub-
lic discourse. The choice of music in public
radio emissions is a good examplifícation of
this fact. These days the cowboys experi-
ence a severe power backlash as the físhing
industry and manual work in general have
become less attractive regarding future ca-
reer preferences among young people. The
cowboys are slowly becoming marginalized
and squeezed out of the urban elite. Also,
their widespread lack of fonnal education,
which didn’t cause any noteworthy career
problems earlier, is now handicapping the
cowboys in their efforts to keep on the track.
As diplomas from recognized education in-
stitutions become the prime factor defining
a man’s value as manpower, ergo your des-
tiny in the labour market, the local social
networks and family capital fail to secure
the Atlantic cowboy a glorious position in
society. Their local capital is, so to say, over-
run by national and global competition
grounded on new formal standards. This de-
velopment, producing new forms of social
marginalisation, has strong parallels in rural
areas in many other countries around the
globe.
[A] focus on the concept of unmanliness allows
for a deeper understanding of the emotional and
personal costs that specifíc male ideals can
cause individuals or groups of men. A man can
never be sure of his masculinity, but must
constantly prove his gendered value in order to
be affirmed, both as a human being and a man
by the surrounding world. The fear of being
demasculinised and thus regarded as unworthy
of the label ‘real man’ is something that is
implanted in men front an early age [...] The
fear of failing into unmanliness is thus present
as a constantly accompanying shadow and as a
hidden driving force underlying men’s objective