New Irish Masculinity Analysis

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According to the Oxford University Press (2017), intersectionality is defined as “The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group”. It is essentially a blending of identities, a theme prevalent in “A Manual on Masculinity? The consumption and use of mediated images of masculinity among teenage boys in Ireland” by Debbie Ging (2005).

Ging (2005) states, the roles of men in society are altering with contradicting discourses on the power and privilege of men versus their suffering and anxiety. According to Ging (2005), modern terms such as metrosexual, new lad, new man and millennium man have challenged the old patriarchal environment of Ireland leading to a fear …show more content…

New Irishness

Diane Negra (2010) discusses New Irishness in her paper, “Urban space, luxury retailing and the new Irishness”. The text deals with the topic of change with the old Irishness and the new Irishness and how Irish Identity has changed and is still changing. Negra makes reference to how Ireland is becoming Americanised. The Americanisation of Irish Identity see’s Ireland consumed with business and money in the modern era. With that she suggests that Irishness has become so loaded and commodified, a term as to have almost lost its ability to denote identity. This can be viewed as a constructed Irishness.

Negra (2010), states that an Irish band called the Corrs have shown a glimpse of the New Irishness through their music video, “We Were So Young”, in which the video is shot in America under the backdrop of a business district. The Corrs and U2 proved that while bringing a strong Irish identity in their music, they could cut their teeth on the international music scene. U2 were the highest grossing band from 2005 selling over 250 million albums. They also proved that they were using a business model that people could follow. Negra (2010), suggests that at one stage Ireland was opposed to globalisation. “Irish Glamour”, Negra states, was the beginning of the New Irishness beginning. Traditional coffee shops such as Bewleys, a predominantly cultural meeting place were replaced by corporate coffee chains as rent became too much on the high street shopping

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