together with a personally and socially meaningful, rich and active life, in community with others (Heikkinen, 2000). But, a life constricted by social isolation and loneliness results in increased susceptibility to poor health and impaired wellbeing (Stansfield, 2006). Because
“[h]ealth is a state of wholeness, equilibrium, balance... harmony –in brief, organic unity”
(Danesh, 2008:820), vehicles like leisure and outdoor pursuits, both of which usher in “a degree of balance to spirit, mind, and body” (Walmsley and Jenkins, 2003: 279) and group memberships can be important to men’s subjective well-being.
Motorcyclists are often portrayed as rebels and loners, yet they are social beings who forge long-lasting friendships in community with one another. These friendships may be fixed or transient, but each holds equal value and esteem. Social networks are linked to leisure occupations through the notion of subculture. Motorcycling enclaves offer men a place of shared interests and practice. They confirm self-concept, promote identification and lead to experiential authenticity. Leisure is a known site of identity construction and an environment distinguished by dominance, where power and subordination are both at play (Mansfield and Chatziefstathiou, 2010). Identity is also constitutive in consumption, because, “people use products to enact one or more of their social identities” (Green,
166 2001:5). Motorcycling enclaves are performative identity-formation sounding boards in which consumption is central. They may be usefully operationalised by the Portuguese
concept ‘convívio’, a masculine noun meaning acquaintanceship, friendship, relationship, familiarity; ‘viver em comum’, or ‘life in common’ (Harland, 1987). Such enclaves give men a male-dominated milieux with a wide variety of social support functions (eg Page, 2001; Thompson, 2009). They also facilitate the forming and re-forming of masculinities and the acquisition and practice of often highly health-relevant consumption.
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Chapter Five: Concluding summary and research questions
According to Raewyn Connell, “Masculinities are not equivalent to men; they concern the position of men in the gender order” (Connell’s italics).107 Four main challenges specific to
men’s health researchers have emerged as part of this literature review:
• The need to better understand interplays between men’s subjective well-being and their health-relevant social behaviour.
• The need for insight into how men’s male identities are related to their subjective
well-being and social praxis/motivations.108
• The need to understand how the protective functions of being a man may be used to create effective public health messages.
• The need to engage those men that already rationalise voluntary risk-taking as a form of mainstream leisure more effectively, with health promotion.
Traditional masculine ideologies underpin familiar expressions of masculinity among some groups of men, including eg, adopting a ‘stiff upper lip’ in the face of adversity, and being reluctant to seek help. The contribution of traditional masculinities to gendered health inequalities are consistently documented, as is men’s entrenched resistance to
engaging in health-relevant discussions with healthcare professionals. Moreover, lay
men’s perceptions of ‘health’ as a women’s preserve reflect generalised views of wider health contexts as ‘feminised’ (eg Riska, 2008; Moore, 2010). Yet, men’s health narratives also display an ambivalence that relates to other underlying orientations (eg Robertson, 2006a). Men’s gendered identities are not only physiological phenomena, but are also constituted socially (eg Connell, 2005). This is reflected in challenges to male-specific
107 See Masculinities at: http://www.raewynconnell.net/p/masculinities_20.html 108 Praxis is defined as: conventions, habits, or customs.
168 health promotion content (eg Williams and Robertson, 2006). Some progress has been
made by proactively situating men’s health interventions in community venues (eg Bunn et al, 2016; Curran et al, 2016; Martin et al, 2016). But, their variety seems limited and the attendance criteria and intrinsic assumptions they make about men’s leisure interests
do not facilitate universal uptake.
Behaviourists, including the 2016 UK Government’s Behavioural Insight Team, continue to
use controversial social marketing strategies like leverage to nudge men into complying
with the current goals of public health. However, “Behaviourists value personal freedom in the abstract, while in practice they limit that freedom to ensure that people behave in
socially responsible ways” (Rosen, 2010: 91). Hence, problems arise due to men’s health orientation, described as by Alan White as their “deeper instinct to find their own way”
(White, 2006). These deeper instincts also manifest in the male motorcycling population via compliance and resistance to non-peer-led incarnations of authority. There, men may resist coercion at the expense of their own health and the very social praxes that enhance their well-being may at times be diametrically opposed to those represented by current health policy issues.
Nationally, motorcyclists account for 1% of all road traffic, yet for 20% of all those killed or seriously injured on British roads (Lancashire Constabulary, 2014). These are mostly motorcycle-only collisions caused by rider-errors (excess speed, inexperience and fatigue; ibid). British motorcycling has established social orders that esteem hegemonic masculine exemplars typified by aggressive use of speed, voluntary risk-taking, stoicism (emotional suppression and denial of pain), resistance to help-seeking and non-healthy behaviours. Also, motorcycling narratives frequently mythologise riding at speed, near-misses, and
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intangibles like brotherhood and ‘the open road’ (McDonald-Walker, 2007; Ward, 2010). Yet, male motorcyclists are characterised by homosociality, loyalty, trust, commitment, brotherhood, altruism, generosity and sharing their skills.
Men’s health and well-being are intrinsically linked though not synonymous. Despite decades of research, this dynamic relationship remains elusive as a potential health- driver, especially for health promotion. If men’s well-documented, allegedly negative orientation to both health and compliance are both influenced by the enactment of so- called traditional masculinities, perhaps they are also subject to gendered peer-effects and social structures in leisure contexts that valorise voluntary risk-taking. Yet, there is a paradox: experiencing stable, long-term male-male adult relationships is a known health protector in men (The Men’s Health Forum, 2006). Among male motorcyclists, strong homosocial relationships are well-documented and mythologised by popular media and in the narratives of motorcycling’s own culturally stereotyped brotherhoods. One’s self- identification as a biker or motorcyclist contains powerful social dynamics, yet potential associations between those and any resulting health-relevant social praxes are unknown.
Perhaps men’s gendered social identity/group identification share an equal importance with their experiences of being male, in terms of their understandings and beliefs about health and well-being?
My conceptual framework is operationalised in the mainstream, male-dominated social world of British motorcycling. That choice facilitates investigation of the effects of well- established, stereotypically masculine environments on men’s understandings of health and well-being. It is therefore positioned to generate fresh insight into the complexities of how socially-identified men manage the contradictory sociological demands of group
170 participation in relation to (achieving, optimising, and maintaining) well-being and making sense of health. This research makes its contribution to knowledge in the arena of men’s
health by seeking fresh insights gained from male motorcyclists in answer to the following questions:
i. What influences male motorcyclists’ well-being and health-relevant behaviour? (QUANTITATIVE)
ii. What are male motorcyclists’ understandings of health and well-being, and how are they expressed? (QUALITATIVE)
iii. How do male motorcyclists’ health, well-being, maleness and social practices converge? (MIXED)
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