Student Showcase: Scott Antrobus

I annotated and interpreted thirty album covers from notable artists within the extreme and heavy metal subgenres to study the representations of gender and masculinity.

Extreme and heavy metal generate little mainstream appeal in the digital age (much to the delight of extreme metal practitioners). However, the genre remains an influential force on an individual and cultural level.

Notions of hegemonic masculinity permeate the genre’s texts, sounds, images, practices and the construction of the heavy metal fan’s identity and experience. By analyzing the representations of girls and women specifically within a male dominated youth subculture, I uncovered how young men construct gender and make sense of the transforming character of masculinity. I found examples of both traditional and new masculinity and the relationship that masculinity has with the subculture’s gender ideology.

The result of my study demonstrates a unique negotiation with masculinity as young men members of the scene work to define their masculinity within hegemonic forms while also changing and adapting their expressions to suit an era that has brought forward movements such as the #MeToo movement.

Scott Antrobus
Second Year MA Student