I am a bull trader by nature: performing Nigel Farage

ABSTRACT

The omnipresent ‘pint-and-fag-images’ of Nigel Farage in the media suggest an Everyman’s traditional masculinity. This article argues that in addition to the Everyman, he represents himself as a city gent through emphasising his ‘city masculinity’ as a former metals exchange trader on the one hand and his ‘gentleman masculinity’ on the other. While the former is employed to construct a charismatic strongman persona the latter appeals to English nationalist voters, enabling Farage to cater to different audiences. These findings result from a close reading of Farage’s two autobiographies, identifying the personae of rebel, businessman and gentleman and their interconnection to the city gent and demonstrating how Farage performs his political masculinity through this city gent persona.

KEYWORDS:

• UKIP
• right-wing populism
• Farage
• city gent
• charismatic strongman
• rebel

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Kathleen Starck is professor of cultural studies at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Campus Landau, Germany. Her research interests include gender studies/masculinites, populism, cold war cultures, popular culture, postcolonial studies, contemporary drama as well as post-socialism. She is the author of Of Treason, God and Testicles: Political Masculinities in British and American Films of the Early Cold War (C-S-P, 2016), founder of the research network ‘Political Masculinities’, which recently merged with the Swedish network ‘Men in Politics’, and has been organising international conferences on political masculinities since 2012. See also: https://politicalmasculinities.jimdofree.com/.

Notes

1 ‘Public schools’ in Britain are private, fee-paying schools.

2 Had Farage attended a more distinguished public school, such as Eton or Harrow, there would be no need to constantly draw attention to it and the many influential people he met there.