Tractor Girls: Youth culture, girlhood and resistance in rural and urban A-tractor cultures
In Sweden, A- and EPA-tractor culture is a growing and widely debated youth cultural phenomenon. A high amount of traffic accidents involving tractors, as well as the associated and controversial music genre ‘EPA-dunk’, has spurred media attention and concern. A- or EPA tractors have traditionally been associated with young rural men but an increasing number of girls have in recent years started driving tractors and, to varying extents, identifying with the culture, its practices, and aesthetics (Alemir et al., 2023). Over the past four years, the number of registered A-tractors, driven by youth between 15 and 18 years of age, has more than doubled (Trafikanalys, 2024). This increase is not limited to rural areas but extends to suburbs to major cities. Despite the rise in popularity, participation and attention, tractor culture remain a relatively unexplored. This study aims to examine contemporary Swedish youth culture from a feminist perspective, specifically how intersectional girlhood is constructed within Swedish tractor cultures. With a focus on young girls who drive tractors, the study uses ethnographic methods to explore how different tractor cultures contribute to shaping, enabling, and limiting different forms of girlhood, and how A-tractor cultures are (re)formed in a changing society. The study contributes particularly to the national and international field of girlhood studies and studies of youth’s cultural and political resistance.