Masculinity, sport and alcohol

At the same time it also signals a willingness to resist their feelings of failure and powerlessness by engagement in the familiar knowledges and practices of dominant forms of masculinity. This revolved around boisterous, disruptive, and often highly offensive behaviour in which young women as well as marginalised young men were constantly subjected to denigrating comments. Embedded in this game was the objectification of girls through the use of a sexist discourse and body language. This behaviour was to some extent normalised within the school environment with many boys and teachers and some girls dismissing it as “mucking around” and “boys being boys”.

Playing this game came at a great cost to many boys who seemed to genuinely like some girls, but any indication of close and sincere social and emotional bonding with a female was immediately ridiculed by the peer group. Some girls were complicit in the sport/masculinity dynamic, but the cost was the risk of being labelled sluts and socially excluded, while the cost for those who rejected it was boredom and feeling unappreciated.

For some young men the rewards of masculine performance were a degree of prestige, but they came at a long-term cost in the lost opportunity to achieve other forms of knowledge that would convert to social and economic rewards.

For the young women both being labelled sluts and being bored at school were linked to early school leaving as a way to escape what they experienced as a form of domination.

While it is possible that the dynamics of the small rural town that was the subject of this investigation are not played out in every Australian community the findings suggest that the kinds of values and behaviours uncovered in the Four Corners report are learned from an early age and to some degree are supported by both our formal and informal institutions. In the case of schools this occurs despite best policies designed to reduce such dynamics and the awareness of teachers.

With such practices normalised throughout the community schools cannot be expected to instigate change on their own, although a greater understanding of the dynamics and efforts to address them could make a difference. The challenge is to redefine social relationships on a broader societal level to turn narrow and harmful social practices, which leaves both the “heroes” and other groups with a sense of failure and lost opportunities, into meaningful, respectful and self-respecting relationships.