The Trailer as Erotic Capital. Gendered Performances—Research and Participant Roles during Festival Fieldwork

This article examines different roles and field relations of the researcher in studies of young people at Christian festivals. The main questions are how the researcher gains access to the “flirtation field,” which flirting roles the youth participants engage in, and how the researcher copes with flirtation in the field. The article’s theoretical approach draws on feminist methodology on how positions, roles, and relations are negotiated in fieldwork, and discusses the notion of erotic capital. Christian festivals in Norway attract among 100,000 people every year. One of the main activities that was brought to my attention by a car trailer was the importance of flirting between the young boys and girls at these festivals. At the Christian festivals, flirting takes place within a heterosexual framework. In order to be part of this game, the girls are supposed to be feminine and available. The boy’s role is to be active and take initiative. Both sexes work hard to become participants in this game of winning attention that represents two different worlds for boys and girls, and in which there are both male and female losers. The rules of the game seem doubly strict for the girls since they are expected to administer both their own and the boys’ lust.