"Horse Girls": Structure and Sensuality of a Youth Cultural Figure

• Applicant: Dr. Anja Schwanhäußer
• Subject Area: Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology
• Term: from 2018 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 396475051

Girls who spend much time with horses are part of a youth subculture that conventionally signifies femininity. The basic assumption of the project is that the figure of the 'horse girl' represents, but also unexpectedly challenges, the social order of gender, age, and human-animal-hierarchies, and that it does so in a specifically subcultural way. Understanding the structure and sensuality of this cultural figure calls for an ethnographic cultural analysis whose methodology both adheres to and challenges the traditional ethnography of subcultures. This approach requires field research into two riding stables, spaces where sensual cultural practices such as 'understanding without words', affection and admiration, as well as the interplay of devotion and control are explored with an ethnographic sensibility through participant observation. Following classical youth gang studies, the project examines the social dynamics within the girl groups in relation to the horses in their care; it also explores their collective style. The two stables are studied in a comparative manner, with one catering mostly to a lower and middle-class membership, while the other serves a predominantly upper-class clientele. These research sites are chosen in order to examine if and to what extent the 'horse girl' is a particularly 'popular' figure, i.e. a figure that transcends distinct strata of society. On the whole, the 'horse girls' are conceptualized not just as a social group; rather, they emerge through an interplay of sensual, (everyday) practical stylizations, media representations, and interactional labeling. Thus, various media material that is used and appropriated by the girls as well as internet-based social media are interpreted through a qualitative cultural analysis in order to grasp the figure's entire character. This youthful, female desire has been identified by Anna Freud as early as 1965, who named it "a little girl's horse craze". However, within the tradition of ethnographic research of youth and subcultures, this "craze" has been hardly given any attention up until today. This is due to the predominantly masculine research paradigms of subcultural studies, but it also derives from the cultural logic of youth subcultures themselves and the meaning of conventional femininity holding sway in this field. From this vantage point, girls are either marginalized and confined to domestic settings, or they are given the role of radical rebels ("riot grrrls"). If horse girls happen to appear at all, they are referred to mostly with a decidedly ironic stance. But, as it happens, this figure manages to show quite strikingly the dynamics of female exclusion and inclusion, deviance and compromise, that need to be interpreted within their own frame of reference. It forms a well defined counterworld to male-dominated youth subcultures, calling for a conceptual readjustment of the ethnography of youth subcultures that promises to enrich the discipline as a whole.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants