The previous post spoke about rites of masculinity in Western countries, or rather their absence. Lacking a unified transitional ritual to mark the passage from childhood to adulthood, some men are finding unique (and often toxic) ways to understand their masculinity. In the U.S., groups like Men’s Rights Activists and the Alt-Right have tried to undo a perceived loss of status by returning to ‘traditional’ understandings of gender and race, frequently utilizing violence to make themselves known. Involvement with these groups is not a rite of passage in itself, but an attempt to retroactively get the same affect. However, in certain European countries, participation in local organized violence, often focusing on a ‘-phobia’, has been reinvented as an unofficial rite of masculinity. Boys who lack a widely understood and ritualized transitional ceremony claim their manhood by becoming members of violently masculine groups. Whether participating in football hooliganism or Aryan supremacy, political and social ideology appears to play a smaller role than the opportunity to prove their budding masculinity.
For this post, I will be using two particular studies that have been conduction on the subject. The first, Racism as Adolescent Male Rite of Passage by Michael Kimmel, focuses on ex-Nazis in Scandinavian countries. He conducted interviews with former members on neo-Nazi groups who left with the help of EXIT, a Swedish-based program. His interest was focused in what caused them to join and then leave their racist organizations. The other paper is Gay bashing – a rite of passage? by Theo Van Der Meer, who uses interviews of thirty “gay bashers” from the Netherlands as a basis for his analysis.
Both authors found particular shared traits among the interview subjects. Their young age, their class identity, and their social isolation. Kimmel states that most of his subjects were between the ages of sixteen and twenty, though some were much younger (2007, p. 205), and Van Der Meer reports his as being between fifteen and twenty years old (2003, p. 153). In both cases, most were working or lower-middle class and downwardly mobile, struggling to maintain their class identity (Kimmel, 2007, p. 209; Van Der Meer, 2003, p. 155). Lastly, both groups expressed alienation from their families, with the former Nazis attributing the same to their peer groups.
Social isolation appears to be one of the main motivating factors for participation. Several former Nazis shared that they lacked paternal role models at home, and even that their familial situations were inconsistent or abusive (Kimmel, 2007, p. 210.) For those who participated in anti-homosexual violence, a majority reported similar upbringings to the former Nazis (Van Der Meer, 2003, p. 155.) Additionally, conflict with strict fathers was a reoccurring theme in both groups’ accounts. Kimmel also found that all but one of his subjects were bullied by their school peers and that most believed that they did not fit in with any cliques at the time of their initiation (2007, p. 208). Violent groups provide these boys with the opportunity to express their anger with their social status and, in a way, get their revenge against those that have emasculated them. One ex-skinhead shared a story of how donning the subculture’s traditional costume not only stopped his bully from bothering him, but inspired fear in his formerly ‘dominant’ peer (p. 211.) Beyond the power trip that association with particular groups provides, the boys gain an instant community that accepts them and celebrates their anger.
A sense of community is key both to induction into these groups and the masculinizing rituals they conduct. Given their reported social isolation, it is unsurprising that many ex-Nazis are introduced to their chosen movement through older mentors, who fulfil a parental role for them, taking them under their wing (p. 210). Similarly, queer bashers reported meeting with more experienced men at cruising spots before fights, so that novices could be initiated (Van Der Meer, 2003, p. 155). Events and meetings for white supremacists and homophobes alike are mainly homosocial, involving intense bonding and masculine validation. Important activities, such as drinking, preparing for ‘war’, and fighting are solely male. More intimate rituals, shaving each other’s heads and congratulatory physical affection after fights, were performed in the same homosocial contexts (Kimmel, 2007, p. 212.). Relationships between the interviewed men and their gangs were characterized as intimate and passionate. Emotional vulnerably was tied exclusively to their brothers’ validation and seen as “indulgent” and weak if shared with women or other men (Van Der Meer, 2003, p. 157.)
Focus on masculine validation is framed as much more important than belief in the organization’s political ideology. Not many of the interviewed ex-Nazis reported joining because of previously held white nationalist leanings. The majority either adopted them after induction by an older mentor or to access benefits (community and power) that came with the neo-Nazi and skinhead life. Adoption of white supremacy and homophobia among the subjects seems to be a way to justify pre-existing anger and desire for violence, not its spark. Pelle, a former Nazi and assistant at EXIT, told Kimmel: “I really wanted to fight and the best way to start a fight is to say “Sieg Heil.” I wanted to fight, to release all that anger and hatred” (2007, p. 212.) Queer bashers appear more likely to have homophobic beliefs before initiation, but extreme actions are taken after bonding with other men over their shared homophobia (Van Der Meer, 2003, p. 155).
Regardless, in both Kimmel and Van Der Meer’s publications, many of the boys are already participating in illegal activities: vandalism, shoplifting, and football hooliganism. Participation in -phobic movements simply allows them to channel their anger in a way that is more productive for rising in a hegemonically masculine hierarchy. Their targets are men who they see as weak and feminine or who threatens their masculinity. For neo-Nazis, this is immigrants who are believed to be the cause of their economic displacement and the corruption of “Swedish girlhood”, as well as Swedish men unwilling to fight against this injustice (Kimmel, 2007, p. 213, 214.) For queer bashers, this is homosexual men who may rape and feminize them (Van Der Meer, 2003, p. 159, 160). The recipient of the violence is less important than the meaning ascribed to them by their attackers, as highlighted in Kimmel’s finding that a significant number of neo-Nazis exit the movement by redirecting their anger again, towards a different subject, becoming bikers, outlaws, committed soccer hooligans, or even violent antiracists (2007, p. 215.)
Unlike participants of American extremist movements, involvement with racist and homophobic groups tends to be transitional, not permanent, for Scandinavian and Dutch men. On average, they are considerably younger when first joining than Americans, in their early teens as opposed to in their late teens and early twenties. Kimmel points out that many Swedish neo-Nazis leave the movement before the age of twenty, just as Americans become involved with it (2007, p. 217), while Van Der Meer expresses that most anti-homosexual violence ends at the same time as other forms of youth delinquency (2003, p. 163). The young ages of the participants point towards an exploration of masculine identity, not an understanding of right-wing extremism. Football hooliganism to white nationalism, for many boys, deliver a ritualized understanding of idealized hegemonic masculinity (violence, anger, brotherhood) in a way that is not provided for in Western cultures. Extremist groups can act as a way for boys to express, and eventually process, aspects of toxic masculinity, coming out with a more mature understanding of themselves and what it means to be a man.
References:
Kimmel, M. (2007, April). Racism as Adolescent Male Rite of Passage: Ex-Nazis in Scandinavia. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 36(2), pp. 202-218.
Van Der Meer, T. (2003). Gay bashing - a rite of passage? Culture, Health & Sexuality, 5(2), pp. 153-165.