Rural Masculinities and the Internalisation of Violence in Agricultural Communities
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Date
2013-12
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ohio State University. Libraries
Abstract
This article is based on research we conducted in two agricultural communities as part of a broader
study that included mining communities in rural Australia. The data from the agricultural locations
tell a different story to that of the mining communities. In the latter, alcohol-fuelled, male-on-male
assaults in public places caused considerable anxiety among informants. By contrast, people in the
agricultural communities seemed more troubled by hidden violent harms which were largely
privatised and individualised, including self-harm, suicide, isolation and threats to men’s general
wellbeing and mental health; domestic violence; and other forms of violence largely unreported
and thus unacknowledged within the wider community (including sexual assault and bullying
linked to homophobia). We argue one reason for the different pattern in the agricultural
communities is the decline of pub(lic) masculinity, and with this, the increasing isolation of rural
men and the increasing propensity to internalise violence. We argue that the relatively high rates of
suicide in agricultural communities experiencing rural decline are symptomatic of the
internalisation of violence.
Description
Keywords
Rural Men, Agriculture, Self Harm, Domestic Violence, Drinking Culture
Citation
International Journal of Rural Criminology, v2, n1 (December, 2013), p. 3-24