Occupying the mainstream : performing hegemonic masculinity in Gold Coast nightclubs

Scholarly work on club culture has frequently focused on the sites and experiences of marginalised groups and subcultural formations such as raves, gay clubs and music venues. ‘Mainstream’ club culture, however, remains significantly underrepresented in the literature. As an everyday mode of sociality for youth in urban areas, mainstream clubbing provides valuable insights into young people’s senses of identity and belonging in contemporary Australian society. On Queensland’s Gold Coast – which can be seen as a major node for clubbing in Australia – mainstream nightclubs are constructed and occupied as male-dominated spaces. That is, the sites and practices of the milieu function to reinforce traditional gender dynamics whereby men are privileged over women. Drawing on observational fieldwork and personal experiences, in this chapter I examine performances of hegemonic masculinity as expressed through presentations of self, mating rituals and homosocial bonding activities. The findings discussed are ‘examples’ in Agamben’s (1993) sense – singular instances that, while not representative of all experiences, provide insight into wider issues of spatiality, masculinity, gender dynamics and sociality among young people