{"id":65645,"date":"2015-12-26T08:00:24","date_gmt":"2015-12-26T13:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=65645"},"modified":"2020-08-10T19:12:12","modified_gmt":"2020-08-11T00:12:12","slug":"lumbersexuals-and-white-heteromasculine-pageantry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2015\/12\/26\/lumbersexuals-and-white-heteromasculine-pageantry\/","title":{"rendered":"Lumbersexuals and white heteromasculine pageantry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2015\/01\/2-1.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-68482\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2015\/01\/2-1-500x143.png\" alt=\"2 (1)\" width=\"500\" height=\"143\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2015\/01\/2-1-500x143.png 500w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2015\/01\/2-1.png 605w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2015\/01\/1b.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-1\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><br \/>\n<\/a>\u201cLumbersexual\u201d recently entered our cultural lexicon. What it means exactly is still being negotiated. At a basic level, it\u2019s an identity category that relies on a set of stereotypes about regionally specific and classed masculinities. Lumbersexuals are probably best recognized by a set of hirsute bodies and grooming habits. Their attire, bodies, and comportment are presumed to cite stereotypes of lumberjacks in the cultural imaginary. However, combined with the overall cultural portrayal of the lumbersexual, this stereotype set fundamentally creates an aesthetic with a particular subset of men that idealizes a cold weather, rugged, large, hard-bodied, bewhiskered configuration of masculinity.<\/p>\n<p>Similar to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/2014\/07\/31\/bacon-beards-and-beer-feminist-reflections-on-hipster-masculinity\/\">hipster masculinity<\/a>, \u201clumbersexual\u201d is a classification largely reserved for young, straight, white, and arguably class-privileged men. While\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mtv.com\/news\/2002135\/quiz-how-lumbersexual-are-you\/\">some<\/a>\u00a0position lumbersexuals as the antithesis of the metrosexual,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cosmopolitan.com\/sex-love\/news\/a32975\/are-you-dating-a-lumbersexual\/\">others<\/a>\u00a0understand lumbersexuals as within a spectrum of identity options made available by metrosexuality.\u00a0Urbandicionary.com <a href=\"http:\/\/www.urbandictionary.com\/define.php?term=Lumbersexual\">defines<\/a>\u00a0the lumbersexual as \u201ca sexy man who dresses in denim, leather, and flannel, and has a ruggedly sensual beard.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 507px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/496442385\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.666667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/496442385?et=IRVhwajQSAZWxitoYvjgJg&amp;viewMoreLink=off&amp;sig=CUDRTbLcWTWuKUTyXwZbjsTHFwF8J9_B_h7b_NlokZ8=\" width=\"507\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n<p>One of the key signifiers of the \u201clumbersexual,\u201d however, is that he is not, in fact, a lumberjack. Like the hipster, the lumbersexual is less of an identity men claim and more of one used to describe them (perhaps, against their wishes). It\u2019s used to mock young, straight, white men for participating in a kind of identity work. Gearjunkie.com describes the identity this way:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Whether the roots of the lumbersexual are a cultural shift toward environmentalism, rebellion against the grind of 9-5 office jobs, or simply recognition that outdoor gear is just more comfortable, functional and durable, the lumbersexual is on the rise (<a href=\"http:\/\/gearjunkie.com\/the-rise-of-the-lumbersexual\">here<\/a>).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Many aspects of masculinity are \u201ccomfortable.\u201d And, men don\u2019t need outdoor gear and lumberjack attire to be comfortable. Lumbersexual has less to do with comfort and more to do with masculinity. It is a practice of masculinization. It\u2019s part of a collection of practices associated with \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/soc4.12134\/abstract\">hybrid masculinities<\/a>\u201d\u2014categories and identity work practices made available to young, white, heterosexual men that allow them to collect masculine status they might otherwise see themselves (or be seen by others) as lacking. Hybridization offers young, straight, class-privileged white men an avenue to negotiate, compensate, and attempt to control meanings attached to their identities as men. Hybrid configurations of masculinity, like the lumbersexual, accomplish two things at once. They enable young, straight, class-privileged, white men to discursively distance themselves from what they might perceive as something akin to the stigma of privilege. They simultaneously offer a way out of the \u201cemptiness\u201d a great deal of scholarship has discussed as associated with racially, sexually, class-privileged identities (see\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Wannabes-Goths-Christians-Boundaries-Status-ebook\/dp\/B001NXBRHS\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1417635825&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=9780226898483\">here<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/White-Bound-Nationalists-Antiracists-Meanings\/dp\/0804776954\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1417635851&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=matthew+hughey\">here<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/jce.sagepub.com\/content\/30\/1\/56.short\">here<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>The lumbersexual highlights a series of rival binaries associated with masculinities: rural vs. urban, rugged vs. refined, tidy vs. unkempt.\u00a0But the lumbersexual is so compelling precisely because, rather than \u201cchoosing sides,\u201d this identity attempts to delicately walk the line between these binaries. It\u2019s \u201cdelicate\u201d precisely because this is a\u00a0heteromasculine configuration\u2014falling too far toward one side or the other could call him into question. But, a lumbersexual isn\u2019t a lumberjack just like a metrosexual isn\u2019t gay. Their identity work attempts to establish a connection with identities to which they have no authentic claim by flirting with stereotypes surrounding sets of interests and aesthetics associated with various marginalized and subordinated groups of men. Yet, these collections are largely mythologies. The bristly woodsmen they are ostensibly parroting were, in fact, created for precisely this purpose. As Willa Brown writes,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The archetypal lumberjack\u2014the Paul Bunyanesque hipster naturalist\u2014was an invention of urban journalists and advertisers. He was created not as a portrait of real working-class life, but as a model for middle-class urban men to aspire to, a cure for chronic neurasthenics. He came to life not in the forests of Minnesota, but in the pages of magazines (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/national\/archive\/2014\/12\/lumbersexuality-and-its-discontents\/383563\/\">here<\/a>).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Perhaps less obviously, however, the lumbersexual is also coopting elements of sexual minority subcultures. If we look through queer lenses we might suggest that lumbersexuals are more similar to metrosexuals than they may acknowledge as many elements of \u201clumberjack\u201d identities are already connected with configurations of lesbian and gay identities. For instance, lumbersexuals share a lot of common ground with \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/gas.sagepub.com\/content\/19\/1\/25.abstract\">bear masculinity<\/a>\u201d (a subculture of gay men defined by larger bodies with lots of hair) and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/wp.me\/p28qKO-tE\">some rural configurations of lesbian identity<\/a>. Arguably, whether someone is a \u201cbear\u201d or a \u201clumbersexual\u201d may solely be a question of sexual identity. After all, bear culture emerged to celebrate a queer\u00a0masculinity, creating symbolic distance from stereotypes of gay masculinities as feminine or effeminate. Lumbersexuals could be read as a similar move in response to metrosexuality.<\/p>\n<p>Lumbersexual masculinity is certainly an illustration that certain groups of young, straight, class-privileged, white men are playing with gender. In the process, however, systems of power and inequality are probably better understood as obscured than challenged. Like the phrase \u201cno homo,\u201d hybrid configurations of masculinity afford young straight men new kinds of flexibility in identities and practice, but don\u2019t challenge relations of power and inequality in any meaningful way.<\/p>\n<p><em>Cross-posted at <a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/2014\/12\/25\/power-pomp-and-plaid-lumbersexuals-and-white-heteromasculine-pageantry\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Feminist Reflections<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.psmag.com\/books-and-culture\/lumbersexuals-and-white-heteromasculine-pageantry\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pacific Standard<\/a>. and <a href=\"http:\/\/inequalitybyinteriordesign.wordpress.com\/2014\/12\/16\/power-pomp-and-plaid-lumbersexuals-and-white-heteromasculine-pageantry\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Inequality by (Interior) Design<\/a>. Image borrowed from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thebolditalic.com\/articles\/6235-the-lumbersexual-is-here-to-chop-down-metrosexuals\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><a style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #990000;\" href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/www.yourqueerprof.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">D\u2019Lane R. Compton, PhD<\/a>\u00a0is an associate professor of sociology at the University of New Orleans. <a style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #990000;\" href=\"http:\/\/people.virginia.edu\/~tsb5k\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tristan Bridges<\/a>\u00a0is a sociologist at the College at Brockport (SUNY). \u00a0You can follow them on twitter at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/drcompton\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@drcompton<\/a> and\u00a0<a style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #990000;\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/tristanbphd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@tristanbphd<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The authors\u00a0would like to thank the Orange Couch of NOLA, Urban Outfitters, the rural (&amp;) queer community, and Andrea Herrera for suggesting we tackle this piece. Additional thanks to C.J. Pascoe and Lisa Wade for advanced reading and comments.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cLumbersexual\u201d recently entered our cultural lexicon. What it means exactly is still being negotiated. At a basic level, it\u2019s an identity category that relies on a set of stereotypes about regionally specific and classed masculinities. Lumbersexuals are probably best recognized by a set of hirsute bodies and grooming habits. Their attire, bodies, and comportment are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":68483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[29,15,55,2087,778,23696,868,341,54],"class_list":["post-65645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-class","tag-culture","tag-gender","tag-gender-masculinity","tag-intersectionality","tag-intersectionality-gender-x-sexual-orientation","tag-power","tag-ruralurban","tag-sexual-orientation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2015\/01\/212.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65645"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73105,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65645\/revisions\/73105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}