Beyond stigmatisation: Some thoughts on how ethnicity obscures gender, and why an ethnography of cricket is an answer

Thomas Walle (Norsk Folkemuseum)

It has rightly been argued that minority masculinities are constituted in relation to the majority society, and that popular images of ethnic minority men must be analysed as a consequence of the majority’s self-imagination. In her book Stolen Honor: stigmatizing Muslim men in Berlin, Katherine P. Ewing argues that these popular images are part of the national imaginary in Europe: «stigmatization of Muslim masculinity is a form of abjection, in which the Muslim man’s sense of self and honour are represented in European national discourses as an uninhabitable way of being» (2008:3). While it is important to document and challenge such processes of stigmatisation and othering, it is argued in this presentation that we need to go beyond stigmatisation to get a sense of the complex ways that gender is constituted, lived and made meaningful.

Much research into the field of gender and ethnicity has placed too strong an emphasis on the relation between a dominant majority and subordinate ethnic groups. If we assert that ethnicity is dynamic, and comes into play in particular contexts, there are reasons to look for situations where ethnicity takes on lesser significance. This advises us to investigate masculinity formations as they take shape and are performed within various minority groups, without seeing them as constituted in a state of tension with the dominant form. Drawing on fieldwork in Oslo, it is asserted that the notion of a Pakistani identity is formative of the social space that organised cricket constitutes, and consequently presents both a site within which one can escape stigmatisation, and a means to express resistance against such stigmatisation. However, when it comes to the internal relations within cricket, there are in general few groups against which such ethnic markers are made relevant – the sport being dominated by players of Pakistani origin.

I will argue that the cricket playing men can be seen as a «muted group», in the sense that under the current dominant discourse it lacks ways to express its view of the world. To emphasise the significance of cricket in the constitution and performance of Norwegian Pakistani masculinities, is to allow the men agency and give voice to experiences that escape the hegemonic gaze.

Time: 1 December, 13.15-15.00
Venue: Seminar room, Department of Social Anthropology, Fosswinckels gate 6, 8th floor

Organised in collaboration with the Department of Social Anthropology, UiB.

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