“Yes …, But I Was Drunk”: Alcohol References and the (Re)Production of Masculinity on a College Campus

Abstract

In residence halls on college campuses, one may hear a (male) student say, “Yes I did vandalize the wall, but I was drunk,” or “I ‘had a few’ before I kissed that ‘butter face’.” Researchers and university administrators could point to these as examples consistent with the problems of student drinking. They could also read these utterances as problematic performances of masculinity. Both groups would be correct. Ethnographers would seek to understand the underlying patterns of these statements, and ethnomethodologists the usefulness of these statements for actors in situ. This ethnography reports the findings of a study of student ways of speaking on a residential college campus. Data show that students’ patterned ways of speaking, especially when making references to drinking, mitigate problematic student behaviors, such as urinating in a corridor of a residence hall. Although such mitigating statements are, at times, by themselves problematic, they (re)produce a much more troubling masculinity.

Keywords:

• Binge Drinking
• Ethnomethodology
• Masculinity
• Student Culture
• Ways of Speaking

Notes

Note. N = 39.

^aIncluding international students.

The meaning of the word moral in “moral order” is not used by ethnomethodologists in its everyday understanding but, instead, as the ongoing constituent features of social practices that are publicly available “as a set of intelligible, visible, accountable, and displayable particulars” (Jayyusi, 1991, p. 244). The very organization of the details of a person's talk, judgments, or inferences make available the values and concerns of that person.

I only use student-generated pseudonyms throughout this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Craig L. Engstrom

Craig L. Engstrom (Ph.D., Southern Illinois University, 2010) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Arts & Sciences at Elmhurst College.