Dr Clay Darcy
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The Men Who Stare at Beer 

7/14/2015

 
Train-watching (aka ‘railfanning’) men and plane-watching men are synonymous with England, men who (allegedly) stare at goats synonymous with America; however, in Ireland if one looks in the right places you can find the men who stare at beer!  I recently witnessed an animated conversation between two men that sparked my attention and got me thinking about these beer gazers.  The conversation I witnessed brought to my mind a quintessential image associated with old Irish pubs: a lone man sitting at the bar or small table staring into a cold pint of beer or stout.   Usually this man is silent and still, occasionally he might throw a comment or two to the bar man or fellow beer gazer … if he feels obliged or inclined.   
The conversation I witnessed went a little like this:

First Man (FM):  Why didn’t you go out the other night?
Second Man (SM):  Because I had no one to go out with.
FM: What do you mean?
SM:  It would have been too late by the time I got to the pub and there wouldn’t have been anyone there I would have known.
FM: Could you not have rang someone and said “Hey are you coming down for a pint?” Or what about ya man Andy?  Would he not have been there?
SM: It was too late.  It would have been last orders by the time I got there.
FM:  Are you telling me that you wouldn’t go into a pub by yourself for a pint?
SM:  No, I wouldn’t go into a pub by myself, I would have to meet people there.  You can’t just go in by yourself … on your own … I’d have to be meeting others, you know?
FM:  WHAT? [total disbelief]…  A real man can walk into a pub by himself get a pint and read a paper or just sit at the bar or whatever – A REAL MAN!
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Illustration by Clay Darcy, 2014
Some might describe this conversation as a ‘competitive argument’ (Campbell, 2000: 572).  I believe this conversational excerpt offers huge insight into these two men’s constructs of masculinity, and reveals something about the men who stare at beer.   Both of these men are Irish and both are professionals, however, the First Man (FM) is older than the Second Man (SM) by about ten years.  The FM appears to have a very clear and distinct idea of what a ‘real’ man is – his idea is traditional and one that conforms to normative hegemonic ideals.  Such a man is strong, independent and confident, he can go anywhere he pleases by himself – he doesn’t need handholding or the support of others. 

According to the FM, a real man is really a lone wolf; he is autonomous and can do difficult things on his own … like drinking beer or reading a paper!  The FM’s comments serve to question and undermine the legitimacy of the SM’s masculinity; the FM implies that the SM is not a real man.  The SM does not challenge the FM’s views, and takes a subordinate stance.  The SM although being a confident and outgoing person, for whatever reason, would not enter a pub by himself.  Without being able to ask the SM, it’s difficult to speculate why this is.  He may be a ‘sociable drinker’ as we refer to it in Ireland, preferring the company of others when drinking or he may ascribe to a different masculine construct.  The SM appears to have a very clear distinct view that pubs are not places for lone individuals, especially when you are not a regular of the pub.  The pub domain can be an intimidating place; anyone who has ever walked into an Irish pub (especially a rural one) and had the entire pub turn on their bar stools and stare at you will understand completely! 

The above conversation reveals much about the everyday gendered interplay between men, and demonstrates the hierarchical nature of masculinity and how hegemony asserts its power.  This conversation is an example of what Hugh Campbell (2000: 565) refers to as ‘conversational cockfighting’, where men try and assert dominance over each other using verbal exchanges, wit and specialized local knowledge.  The FM’s comments illustrate the culturally embedded association between masculinity and the pub, and offer some understanding of the men who stare at beer. 

The men who stare at beer, are possibly not just staring at beer, they are publically displaying a specific type of masculinity.  They are pub performers in a sense.  This masculine construct historically distilled in Irish pubs is often referred to as ‘traditional masculinity’.   This masculinity is hardened, solitary and free from the influence of women.  In compiling an oral history of Irish pubs, Kevin Kearns interviewed many Irish men with this type of masculine construct.  Kearns (1996: 40) states that Irish pubs were the ‘last bastion of male supremacy’, and that many [older] Irish men (crusty old regulars as Kearns calls them) regarded the pub as a ‘holy ground’.  One man described the social rules of the pub to Kearns in the following way ‘it was a sort of religion among the men that a woman wouldn’t be seen in a bar’  (John Greenhalgh, age 82, In: Kearns, 1996: 40).

The men who stare at beer are remnants of a bye-gone era, where pubs were strictly masculine in domain.   The pub was mythologized as a sacred space and this ‘holy ground’ served to exclude women and legitimize men’s hegemony.  The SM from the conversation above is not a beer gazer, and his comments serve to demonstrate a noticeable cultural shift among younger Irish men.   Younger Irish men are less likely to be beer gazers than older men.  This shift may be subtle but does indicate a move away from traditional masculine constructs toward a more contemporary inclusive masculinity.  Some might say that young Irish men are less like to be beer gazers and rather beer guzzlers, but that’s a separate blog altogether!

References:

Campbell, H. (2000) ‘The Glass Phallus: Pub(lic) Masculinity and Drinking in Rural New Zealand’, Rural Sociology, 65(4), pp. 562-581.
Kearns, K.C. (1996) Dublin Pub Life and Lore – An Oral History, Dublin: Gill & Macmillan.

Notes:

This blog featured was published in Lógr Magazin (June 2015) - 
Darcy, C. (2015) „Muži, kteří zírají do piva” (Trans. Stašová, E.), Lógr, Vol. 16, 20-23. 

It also feature on www.masculinities101.com in October 2014 - http://masculinities101.com/2014/10/01/the-men-who-stare-at-beer/

Lógr Magazine Publication -  „Muži, kteří zírají do piva”

7/14/2015

 
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Find out more about Lógr magazine at -http://www.logrmagazin.cz
Well I've officially been published in two languages - English and Czech!

A translated Czech version of my blog "The Men Who Stare at Beer" which featured on masculinities101.com has been published in a special edition of Lógr magazine on beer and culture.  

You can practice your Czech by reading „Muži, kteří zírají do piva” - by downloading from the document link below!  Na zdraví!
c_darcy_2015_lógr.pdf
File Size: 3086 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Ref: Darcy, C. (2015) „Muži, kteří zírají do piva” (Trans. Stašová, E.), Lógr, Vol. 16, 20-23. 

Jumping for masculinity 

7/7/2015

 
Recently my wife and I went for a stroll along a near by harbour and marina.  We were enjoying each other’s company, happily taking in the fresh air, views of the yachts and fishing boats, the surrounding hills and mountains, and the deep dark sea.  There was a strong breeze but the air was warm.  We reached the end of the north pier and were looking down into the mouth of the harbour and over toward the south pier.  There across the water on the opposite pier were three topless men.  The men were jumping up and down, laughing and shouting; they were shadow boxing and shoving each other around.   My wife and I watched them for a moment, not quite sure what they were up to. 

The men began jumping up onto the pier wall, looking over the pier edge to the water in the harbour below and then jumping back down off the wall.  They then resumed their messing around, jumping up and down, and beating their chests like hairless apes.  It was clearer now they were psyching themselves up to jump off the pier into the harbour, some thirty to forty feet below.  Never wanting to miss a photo opportunity and curious of the scene that was unfolding, I turned to my wife and said - “let’s watch for a minute!”  

The men continued their sequence of actions; messing around, boxing the air and each other, climbing up onto the pier wall, looking over and down into the water below, then back down off the pier wall and goofing around again.  I began to think this was all bluff and the men were not really going to jump.  With my masculinity lens these men appeared to be putting on a performance for each other, and incidentally for the handful of people in their view within the harbor and marina.  The tide was out, and to me, it didn’t look like there was sufficient depth of water below to allow for a jump from that height.  I guessed the men might be considering this.  If there was insufficient depth of water in the harbor, the men risked serious injury from the fall.  Then before I had a minute to capture the moment, one of the men climbed up onto the pier wall.  Shouting loudly, he jumped off the pier wall dropping down into the water below.  The time between the man hitting the water and resurfacing seemed incredibly long.

Sure enough, he resurfaced and began swimming to shore.  I thought his friends would fallow in sequence jumping next, but they did not.  They waited until the jumper made it back up onto the pier wall having completing his very long self-indulgent glory run, cheering and whooping along the way.  I wondered whether this was an individual test or group challenge that had been set.  The men whooped and shouted, congratulatory slapping the jumper on the back at his return.  The three men laughed loudly and the jumper expressively re-enacted his jump through mime.  Then it was clear another man intended to jump.  He began the earlier sequence of actions carried out by the first man; he jumped up onto the pier wall looked over the edge, back down off the wall, shadow boxing, chest beating, shouting, shoving … then he ran, climbed up onto the pier wall and jumped off into harbour below.  This time my camera was ready.
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Happily I turned to my wife - “I got it!”  Knowing I had captured a perfect illustration of men partaking in a perceived test of masculinity.  These men were taking a significant risk.  There are many signs positioned around the harbor and marina explicitly stating diving is neither safe nor permitted.  Engaging in rule breaking, carrying out a physically challenging task and taking a substantial risk all culminate in what Michael Kimmel (1997: 309) would describe as the “vigorous ways” men “demonstrate their hardy manhood”.  

Kimmel (1997: 310) states, often “men’s bodies” are used as a “masculine testing ground”.  These men were indeed publically testing their bodies, and the limits of their resolve.  There was a certain ritualistic sequence to their pier jumping; the psyching up, surveying the field, the taunting / rallying from peers, more psyching up, the jump itself, the glory run to and congratulation from peers, and then the repeat of this sequence by the next man.  However, it was the very public nature of this risky activity that fascinated me so.  It reminded me of something Matthew Desmond (2007: 7) wrote: “the drama of manhood must be performed ardently, publicly, and without end, and one way this is accomplished is through activity that threatens male bodies”. 

I am ever fascinated by social constructions of gender, and in particular men’s constructs of masculinity.  The fact that many men have to engage in such risky behaviours and actions to accomplish a perceived state of manhood or manliness is bizarre to me.  The scene my wife and I witnessed, demonstrates the very real and dangerous ways gender constructs are enacted by some men.  As my wife and I walked away from this scene, I chatted on about masculinities, tests of manhood, and so on.  Luckily I don’t need to test my masculinity like the men at the harbour because my wife reassured me by saying “you’d never need to jump off a harbour to prove your manhood like those doofuses … because I’ll happily push you off if you don’t stopping talking about masculinities and just enjoy the bloody walk!”

© Clay Darcy, July 2015.
 
This blog was originally posted on Masculinities101.com - http://masculinities101.com/2015/07/03/the-harbor-jump-men-testing-their-masculinity/ (03.07.2015). 

References:
Desmond, M. (2007) On the Fireline – Living and Dying with Wildland Fires.  Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press. 
Kimmel, M. (1997) Manhood in America - A Cultural History.  New York, London & Toronto: The Free Press. 

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