Masculinity constructing among street workout youth in post-Soviet Dagestan

Abstract

Based on a case study of a street workout community in post-Soviet Dagestan, I show how young underclass men construct and negotiate their masculinities in a transitional society. Processes of deindustrialization and urbanization destabilize the gender order and problematize the legitimate ways of ‘achieving’ masculinity. Street workout athletes use the global cultural (post-sports) practice to articulate, prove and perform their masculinity styles and scenarios, which correspond both to the norms of the local and global hegemonic models. They pursue ‘leisure careers’ of professionally successful men and represent a strong, but not aggressive corporeality distancing themselves from marginalizing practices of street violence.

Keywords:

• New sports
• street workout
• masculinity
• habitual insecurity
• post-Soviet Dagestan

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding

The results of the project ‘Fields of positive interethnic interactions and youth cultural scenes in the Russian cities’ supported by Russian Science Foundation [grant number 15-18-00078].

Notes

1 — List of cited respondents (all males): №1 — 21 years old, №2 — 23 years old, №3— 15 years old, №4 — 14 years old, №5— 22 years old, №6 — 19 years old, №7 — 23 years old.