ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the gender practices, vocabularies and sentiments expressed by young men in Sheffield in the mid-1990s are fixed, coherent or exhaustive of all the forms of masculinity adopted by Sheffield men, whether in a similar situation or a different position within the local labour market. It also argues that the form of gender identity in place in particular localities will be inflected not only by actually-existing regimes of work but also by nostalgic evocations of such regimes, even in the aftermath of their disappearance. The term 'proper little Mester' is, in fact, double-edged in its local usage. Some of the 'little Mesters', did not work themselves, but existed instead as 'factors' or intermediaries, buying the labour of outworkers to fill particular orders. The chapter discusses the representation of northern men in television beer adverts, and particularly an advertising campaign by the Sheffield-based brewery of Stones.
