Sticky Masculinity and Failure: A guide to falling to at Dean Lane Skatepark

This article traces the connections between failure and masculinity at Dean Lane skatepark. My research is based on 10-weeks of ethnographic research at a skatepark in Bristol, U.K., where I used audiovisual means and sensory participant observation to produce an ethnographic film, a scrapbook, and a textual thesis. In this thesis, I explore how skaters would narrate experiences of failure and negotiate their masculinity within these stories. I build on Geckle & Shaw (2020) study on queer failure, by using the concept of ‘sticky’ masculinity to show how stories of failure often celebrate masculine values of hardness and bodily sacrifice. Moreover, I draw connections between ‘sticky’ masculinity and the neoliberal idea of the self-made man to argue that the celebration of failure can take place through meritocratic ways of thinking. Finally, the interviews highlight what is expected of skaters within the environment, what cultural norms become the ‘stickiest’ and how they relate to...Show moreThis article traces the connections between failure and masculinity at Dean Lane skatepark. My research is based on 10-weeks of ethnographic research at a skatepark in Bristol, U.K., where I used audiovisual means and sensory participant observation to produce an ethnographic film, a scrapbook, and a textual thesis. In this thesis, I explore how skaters would narrate experiences of failure and negotiate their masculinity within these stories. I build on Geckle & Shaw (2020) study on queer failure, by using the concept of ‘sticky’ masculinity to show how stories of failure often celebrate masculine values of hardness and bodily sacrifice. Moreover, I draw connections between ‘sticky’ masculinity and the neoliberal idea of the self-made man to argue that the celebration of failure can take place through meritocratic ways of thinking. Finally, the interviews highlight what is expected of skaters within the environment, what cultural norms become the ‘stickiest’ and how they relate to larger structures.Show less

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Sticky Masculinity and Failure: A guide to falling to at Dean Lane Skatepark