Nick Hornby. IF YOU WALK into any large newsagent to look for a magazine, it is obvious what takes up the most shelf space; a large section of mostly generic 'women's' magazines -and row upon row of specialist magazines on men's interests.
Set aside the soft and not so soft porn for a moment: the sions is staggering. Fishing. guns, football, trains, cars, different categories of cars... the list is endless in its categories and sub categories.
Surrounded
Entitled general interest". these shelves are nearly always surrounded by men flick. ing through the pages.
Why do men have such obsessions? Why are men's hotbies invariably concerned with knowing vast amounts of tact and detail? And what does this say about the socialization of girls and boys?
FEATURE Why are men's hobbies invariably fact and detail?
Football is a good example. Nic: Homby's excellent book "Feverpitch provides an interesting insight into this phenomenon. Writing about the difference between boys and girls he says.
'...most of us were defined only by the number and extent of our interests. Some boys had more records than others. cars, or rugby.
*We had passions instead of personalities, predictable and uninteresting passions at that, passions which could not reflect and illuminate us in the way that my sintends did...and this is one of the most inexplicable differences between men and women.
*...I have met women who have loved football, and go to watch a number of games a season, but I have not yet met one who would make that Wednesday night trip to Plywomen who love music, and from their Shirley Browns, but I have never met a woman concerned with knowing vast amounts of with a huge and ever expanding and neurotically alphabetiThey always soom to have lost their rocords, or to have relied on somebody eise in the house - a boyfriend, a brother. a flatmate, usually a male - to have provided the physical decannot allow this to happen...
'I am not saying the anally ist, but she is vastly outnumbered by her masculine equivalent; and while there are women with obsessions, they are usually, I think, obsessive about people, or the focus for their obsessions changes frequently • This is a phenomenon which is also rife on the left. There always seem to be men quote chapter and verse from the historical writings of various class heroes. Or men who can recite the family tree of left wing groups and their divisions of sub divisions as easily as falling off a log.
Obsessions provide the op portunity for social contact without intimacy. The feeling of belonging and comradeship without the prospect of having to talk about yourself.
In a dysfunctional capitalist society this may be the only opportunity some people have for any of the enoyment and warmth that comes with human contact. It's cafe to debate about different types of aeroplanes, about who won the League in 1956, about which car has the better fuel injection engine.
Many men become fanatics ahout their chosen hobby and and money to its pursuit. This attention to and obsession with detail serves a purpose.
It makes people experts, it gives them power and social standing in their particular milieu. It can also give structure, meaning. purpose and fulfil. ment in what otherwise would be a pretty dull ani empty existence.
To be the most knowledgable amongst a small group gives a sense of power.
Again Nick Homby is illuminating.
*I am aware, sometimes, in my sroup of Arsenal-supporting friends, of an understated of us likes to be told something about the club that we didn't know - an injury to one of the reserves, say, of an impending alteration to the shirt design, something crucial like that - by any of the otners Many hobbies are fun, and the social contact is good. Some interests have a pumpose when is uscrut and necessary.
Detail
What is interesting though, is the particular way men co about pursuing their hobbies. lute attention to detail and ability to remember obscure bits of information is amazing - a quality and skill which could It would be foolish and paranoid to believe that this manner of socialisation is all some sinister plot hatched out by the useful function. Where people are atomised, cach absorbed with their particular obsession. and spend every available minute of spare time becoming more expert, they are not think1g doout anytung cisc A friend tells a story about a trip to France. On arrival at Charles De Gaulle amen he and standing next to a group of five or six very ordinary looking men in their 30s and He was able to overhear their conversation and discovcred that they were plane spotmore planes for their records. The yuppie version of trainWhat possesses a group of men to send by no means small amounts of money to traver to airports to spor planes?
And what of a friend who recently had to wipe the game "Civilisation' from his com•**• - Emperor of the Trotskyists' was becoming more important than getting down to work?
Some poople would say this phenomenon and the oppres quences is evidence of inherent badness in men.
But it isn't inherent in anyone to be isolated from other people or to be so attentive to detail - it arises from the ideo. logical nature of childrearing and the reproduction of social functions which benefit the rulWomen would be more come experts. Instead many wind up washing, cooking and cleaning for a man whose every leisure moment is consumed by a hobby.
Men would be less alienated if their hobbies were shared and less obsessional.
Capitalism divides us from from our lives. The magazine ana icisure industay, with tici massive advertising role, certainly serves that boss, reinforcing and exploiting our perceived needs.
Buying a magazine will never feel the same again!
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 48, September 1993, Page 11