Editing Viking metal (section)

==== Masculinity, heroism, and racial identity ====
[[File:Kari Rueslåtten.jpg|left|thumb|[[Kari Rueslåtten]], formerly of [[Storm (Norwegian band)|Storm]], and seen here with The Sirens. Women musicians are not common among Viking metal bands.]]
According to music studies scholar Catherine Hoad, the Viking image in popular understanding is that of [[hypermasculinity]], and thus Viking metal is inherently [[patriarchy|patriarchal]]. While some bands, such as [[Kivimetsän Druidi]], [[Storm (Norwegian band)|Storm]], and Irminsul, have included female members, and female fans comprise a substantial part of Viking metal's audience, it is argued that women are subordinated within the Viking metal scene, and are rarely present in the production of Viking metal music, which can be seen as a form of "nation-building": while women may participate in the nation building process, it is still controlled by men.{{sfn|Hoad|2013|p=64}} Within Viking metal, themes of war and masculinity predominate.{{sfn|Manea|2015|p=188}} Hoad also contends that black and Viking metal express whiteness through a confluence of notions of nation, nature, monstrosity, and masculinity. Per Hoad, constructions of "authentic" nationhood continue to be directly informed by conceptions of race.{{Sfn|Hoad|2021|p=96}} The ethnoromantic fantasy of Vikings and pagans as premodern people subsisting off of the land is informed by the confluence of nationalism, racialism, and masculinity. "Unknowable" land is valorized, econationalism is fiercely advocated, and wilderness is prized as simultaneously impermeable to, yet under threat, from [[globalization]].{{Sfn|Hoad|2021|p=96}} "Authentic" Nordic whiteness is contested against what is perceived as the colonizing force of Christianity and the weakening of society via modernism. Hoad argues that "the ethnonationalism of Norwegian metal then emerges through textual representations of Norway, and Norwegian whiteness, as terrifying and discomforting; yet ancient, pure, elite and unique."{{Sfn|Hoad|2021|p=97}} Whiteness, writes Hoad, is embedded within a wider national effort of "maintaining Norwegianness in an increasingly globalised context."{{Sfn|Hoad|2021|p=97}} Hoad does not believe that this understanding of Norwegian metal means that these scenes are inherently racist or fascist, but rather acknowledges that representations of Nordic history within both metal music and broader nationalist discussions exist within a dominant structure of power which can and has been used to support the cultural hegemony of whiteness.{{Sfn|Hoad|2021|p=97}}

Some artists, such as Burzum, link manliness with Norse tradition and gender ideals, and thus see the Viking male as representing traditional masculinity.{{sfn|Mørk|2011|pp=139–140}} Most of the Norse references in black metal are heroic, masculine, and militaristic in theme&nbsp;– Mjölnir, Odin, the [[Iron Cross]], and [[berserker]]s and [[einherjar]].<ref>{{harvnb|Mørk|2011|p=140}}; {{harvnb|Weinstein|2014|p=60}}</ref> Conversely, [[Jesus]], though a male figure, is seen in songs such as "Jesu død" by Burzum as cold, dark, and life-extinguishing.{{sfn|Mørk|2011|p=140}} Christianity is viewed as stigmatizing and suppressing the natural "dark" sides of men, and so, from the perspective of black metal, true masculinity is achieved through exploring the dark sides of man's nature&nbsp;– warfare and killing.{{sfn|Mørk|2011|p=140}} Sociologist Karl Spracklen notes that the folk music band [[Wardruna]] does not play black metal at al yet was nonetheless immediately accepted by black metal fans both because some black metal artists had transitioned from black metal to neofolk, [[Drone music|drone]], or [[ambient music]] and because Wardruna is "heroic, masculine and associated with the well-worn epic trope of Viking metal".{{Sfn|Spracklen|2020|p=120}}

Cultural historian Nina Witoszec found that within Norway, images of nature are often symbolic with cultural affiliation to Norway. Witoszec traces the roots of this ideal to [[Tacitus]]'s German-heathen identity narrative which romanticized the Germanic people as superior through their connection with nature, and whose brutality and belligerence opposed the apathetic and decadent Roman elite.{{sfn|Mørk|2011|pp=140–141}} Within black metal, Norse imagery is used to build a view of natural and authentic masculinity to counter the oppressive force of the Judeo-Christian tradition.{{sfn|Mørk|2011|p=144}}