Around the boundary: alcohol and older Caribbean-Canadian men

Abstract

This article examines the alcohol-infused leisure practices of a group of older Afro-Caribbean men in Canada. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in the Greater Toronto Area, which has a large diasporic Caribbean community, this article examines the ways alcohol consumption at cricket grounds plays an integral role in the reproduction of club members’ gender as well as their homeland cultures, age, class and national identities. In 2008 and 2009 data were collected with a group of cricketers and spectators through observation, casual conversation, participation in social events and 27 in-depth formal interviews with male players and spectators. Findings reveal that drinking at the cricket ground is a means for Caribbean men to mask the effects of old age (limping, forgetfulness and declining physical strength), and thereby renew their investment in hegemonic masculinity. Drinking also enables them to temporarily escape their wives and domestic labour as well as circumvent childcare. Through the brands they consume they perform their class distinctions and celebrate their Canadian and Caribbean national affiliations and transnational mobilities. Drinking at the cricket ground is a means to embrace and challenge dominant gender stereotypes.

Keywords:

• ageing
• diaspora
• masculinity
• rum
• Toronto
• cricket

Acknowledgements

This study was completed with the support of a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Thanks to Steve Jackson, Kyoung-Yim Kim and anonymous reviewers for their comments.

Notes

1. Throughout this article, I use the term Caribbean to refer to the formerly English colonies of the Caribbean region. Although the term West Indian is often used, especially with respect to cricket communities, I refrain from using this colonially imposed term in favour of a linguistic reference to one of the regions’ indigenous peoples, the Caribs.

2. At every game, 10–20 women were also present at the cricket ground for weekend home games. Women were typically related to the Mavericks (wives, sisters or daughters), and ranged in age from approximately 25 to 65. Analysis of their drinking practices and interactions with male club members remains outside the scope of this article.

3. Another reason Afro-Caribbean men resist femininity could be to construct themselves in resistance to Indo-Caribbean men, who are represented as a feminised subordinated masculinity within Caribbean contexts. I extend thanks to Dr Caroline Fusco for drawing the racialised dimensions of gender performances to my attention.