'Yes ..., But I Was Drunk': Alcohol References and the (Re)Production of Masculinity on a College Campus

摘要

In residence halls on college campuses, one may hear a (male) student say, "Yes I did vandalize the wall, but I was drunk," or "I 'had a few' before I kissed that 'butter face'." Researchers and university administrators could point to these as examples consistent with the problems of student drinking. They could also read these utterances as problematic performances of masculinity. Both groups would be correct. Ethnographers would seek to understand the underlying patterns of these statements, and ethnomethodologists the usefulness of these statements for actors in situ. This ethnography reports the findings of a study of student ways of speaking on a residential college campus. Data show that students' patterned ways of speaking, especially when making references to drinking, mitigate problematic student behaviors, such as urinating in a corridor of a residence hall. Although such mitigating statements are, at times, by themselves problematic, they (re)produce a much more troubling masculinity.