‘That’s what I call a man’
representations of racialised and classed masculinities in the UK print media
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v10i1.25401Keywords:
masculinities, Britain, corpus analysis, discourse analysis, hegemonic masculinity, intersectionalityAbstract
According to Connell (1995), "being a man" involves actively positioning one's self in relation to culturally dominant images of masculinity. Yet, crucially, these images change depending on the social and historical context. In this paper, we examine contemporary discourses of masculinity as they are represented in the British press. In particular, we focus on the ways in which masculine representations are both racialized and classed, and how they are positioned in relation to one another within a broader ideological field of gender and power. Analyses are based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of a large corpus (35.5 million words) of newspaper articles on masculinity that appeared in the UK between 2003 and 2011. Our findings underscore the importance of adopting an intersectional approach to the study of language and masculinity, and provide support for recent critical re-evaluations of the foundational concept of hegemonic masculinity.
References
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Alexander, C. (2004) Imagining the Asian gang: ethnicity, masculinity and youth after ‘the riots’. Critical Social Policy 24: 526–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0261018304046675
Archer, L. (2001) ‘Muslim brothers, black lads, traditional Asians’: British Muslim young men’s constructions of race, religion and masculinity. Feminism and Psychology 11: 79–105. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959353501011001005
Baker, P. and Levon, E. (2015) Picking the right cherries? A comparison of corpus-based and qualitative analyses of news articles about masculinity. Discourse and Communication 9(2): 221–236. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1750481314568542
Baker, P., Gabrielatos, C. and McEnery, T. (2013) Sketching Muslims: A corpus driven analysis of representations around the word ‘Muslim’ in the British press 1998–2009. Applied Linguistics 34: 255–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/applin/ams048
Benwell, B. (2003) Introduction: Masculinity and men’s lifestyle magazines. In B. Benwell (ed.) Masculinity and Men’s Lifestyle Magazines 6–29. Oxford: Blackwell.
Beynon, J. (2002) Masculinities and Culture. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Birner, B. (1996) The Discourse Function of Inversion in English. New York: Garland.
Bourdieu, P. and Wacquant, L. (1992) An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Cameron, D. (2010) Sex/gender, language and the new biologism. Applied Linguistics 31: 173–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/applin/amp022
Carrigan, T., Connell, R. and Lee, J. (1985) Towards a new sociology of masculinity. Theory and Society 14: 551–604. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00160017
Chapman, R. (1988) The great pretender: Variations on the new man theme. In R. Chapman and J. Rutherford (eds) Male Order: Unwrapping Masculinity 225–48. London: Lawrence & Wishart.
Choo, H. and Ferree, M. (2010) Practicing intersectionality in sociological research: a critical analysis of inclusions, interactions and institutions in the study of inequalities. Sociological Theory 28: 129–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9558.2010.01370.x
Christensen, A.-D. and Jensen, S. (2014) Combining hegemonic masculinity and intersectionality. NORMA: International Journal for Masculinity Studies 9: 60–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/18902138.2014.892289
Connell, R. (1987) Gender and Power. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Connell, R. (1995) Masculinities. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Connell, R. and Messerschmidt, J. (2005) Hegemonic masculinity : rethinking the concept. Gender and Society 19: 829–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0891243205278639
Crenshaw, K. (1991) Mapping the margins: intersectionality, identity politics and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review 43: 1241–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1229039
Du Bois, J. (2007) The stance triangle. In R. Englebretson (ed.) Stancetaking in Discourse 139–82. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/pbns.164.07du
Edley, N. and Wetherell, M. (1997) Jockeying for position: the construction of masculine identities. Discourse and Society 8: 203–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0957926597008002004
Ehrlich, S. and Levesque, S. (2011) The strategic marginalization of working class masculinity in a batterers’ treatment programme. Gender and Language 5: 271–301. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/genl.v5i2.271
Frosh, S., Phoenix, A. and Pattman, R. (2000) Cultural contestations in practice: white boys and the racialisation of masculinities. In C. Squire (ed.) Culture in Psychology 45–56. London: Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203361047_chapter_3
Frosh, S., Phoenix, A. and Pattman, R. (2001) Young Masculinities: Understanding Boys in Contemporary Society. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gill, R. (2003) Power and the production of subjects: a genealogy of the New Man and the New Lad. In B. Benwell (ed.) Masculinity and Men’s Lifestyle Magazines 34–56. Oxford: Blackwell. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954x.2003.tb03602.x
Gough, B. (2001) ‘ Biting your tongue’: negotiating masculinities in contemporary Britain. Journal of Gender Studies 10: 169–185. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09589230120053292
Groes-Green, C. (2012) Philogynous masculinities: Contextualizing alternative manhood in Mozambique. Men and Masculinities 15: 91–111. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1097184X11427021
Hearn, J. and Morrell, R. (2012) Reviewing hegemonic masculinities and men in Sweden and South Africa. Men and Masculinities 15: 3–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1097184X11432111
Hopkins, P. (2009) Responding to the ‘crisis of masculinity’: the perspectives of young Muslim men from Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland. Gender, Place and Culture 16: 299–312. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09663690902836334
Jackson, P. (1994) Black male: Advertising and the cultural politics of masculinity. Gender, Place and Culture 1: 49–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09663699408721200
Jackson, P., Stevenson, N. and Brooks, K. (2001) Making Sense of Men’s Magazines. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Jaffe, A. (2009) Introduction: the sociolinguistics of stance. In A. Jaffe (ed.) Stance: Sociolinguistic Perspectives 3–28. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10673220902891794
Jaworski, A. and Thurlow, C. (2009) Taking an elitist stance: ideology and the discursive production of social distinction. In A. Jaffe (ed.) Stance: Sociolinguistic Perspectives 195–226. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331646.003.0009
Kress, G. (1995) The social production of language: history and structures of domination. In P. Fries and M. Gregory (eds) Discourse in Society: Systemic Functional Perspectives 115–40. Westport, CT: Ablex Publishing.
Kulick, D. (2005) The importance of what gets left out. Discourse and Society 7: 615–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461445605054408
Luyt, R. (2012) Constructing hegemonic masculinities in South Africa: the discourse and rhetoric of heteronormativity. Gender and Language 6: 47–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/genl.v6i1.47
McCall, L. (2005) The complexity of intersectionality. Signs 30: 1771–1800. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/426800
McEnery, A., Tono, Y. and Xiao, R. (2006) Corpus-Based Language Studies: An Advanced Resource Book. London: Routledge.
Milani, T. (2013) Are ‘queers’ really ‘queer’? Language, identity and same-sex desire in a South African online community. Discourse and Society 24: 615–633. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0957926513486168
Milani, T. (2015) Theorizing language and masculinities. In T. Milani (ed.) Language and Masculinities: Performances, Intersections, Dislocations 8–33. London: Routledge.
Rutherford, J. (1988) Who’s that man? In R. Chapman and J. Rutherford (eds) Male Order: Unwrapping Masculinity 21–67. London: Lawrence & Wishart.
Segal, L. (1993) Changing men: Masculinities in context. Theory and Society 22: 625–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00993539
Seidler, V. (2006) Transforming Masculinities: Men, Cultures, Bodies, Power, Sex and Love. London: Routledge.
Stubbs, M. (2001) Words and Phrases: Corpus Studies of Lexical Semantics. Oxford: Blackwell.
Walsh, F. (2010) Male Trouble: Masculinity and the Performance of Crisis. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9780230281752
Ward, G. and Birner, B. (2001) Discourse and information structure. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen and H. Hamilton (eds) Handbook of Discourse Analysis 119–37. Oxford: Blackwell.
Weldon, L. (2008) Intersectionality. In G. Goertz and A. Mazur (eds) Politics, Gender and Concepts: Theory and Methodology 193–218. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wetherell, M. and Edley, N. (1999) Negotiating hegemonic masculinity: imaginary positions and psycho-discursive practices. Feminism and Psychology 9: 335–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959353599009003012
Whehelan, I. (2000) Overloaded: Popular Culture and the Future of Feminism. London: Women’s Press.
Yuval-Davis, N. (2011) The Politics of Belonging: Intersectional Contestations. London: Sage.
Alexander, C. (1996) The Art of Being Black: The Creation of Black British Youth Identities. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Alexander, C. (2004) Imagining the Asian gang: ethnicity, masculinity and youth after ‘the riots’. Critical Social Policy 24: 526–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0261018304046675
Archer, L. (2001) ‘Muslim brothers, black lads, traditional Asians’: British Muslim young men’s constructions of race, religion and masculinity. Feminism and Psychology 11: 79–105. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959353501011001005
Baker, P. and Levon, E. (2015) Picking the right cherries? A comparison of corpus-based and qualitative analyses of news articles about masculinity. Discourse and Communication 9(2): 221–236. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1750481314568542
Baker, P., Gabrielatos, C. and McEnery, T. (2013) Sketching Muslims: A corpus driven analysis of representations around the word ‘Muslim’ in the British press 1998–2009. Applied Linguistics 34: 255–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/applin/ams048
Benwell, B. (2003) Introduction: Masculinity and men’s lifestyle magazines. In B. Benwell (ed.) Masculinity and Men’s Lifestyle Magazines 6–29. Oxford: Blackwell.
Beynon, J. (2002) Masculinities and Culture. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Birner, B. (1996) The Discourse Function of Inversion in English. New York: Garland.
Bourdieu, P. and Wacquant, L. (1992) An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Cameron, D. (2010) Sex/gender, language and the new biologism. Applied Linguistics 31: 173–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/applin/amp022
Carrigan, T., Connell, R. and Lee, J. (1985) Towards a new sociology of masculinity. Theory and Society 14: 551–604. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00160017
Chapman, R. (1988) The great pretender: Variations on the new man theme. In R. Chapman and J. Rutherford (eds) Male Order: Unwrapping Masculinity 225–48. London: Lawrence & Wishart.
Choo, H. and Ferree, M. (2010) Practicing intersectionality in sociological research: a critical analysis of inclusions, interactions and institutions in the study of inequalities. Sociological Theory 28: 129–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9558.2010.01370.x
Christensen, A.-D. and Jensen, S. (2014) Combining hegemonic masculinity and intersectionality. NORMA: International Journal for Masculinity Studies 9: 60–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/18902138.2014.892289
Connell, R. (1987) Gender and Power. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Connell, R. (1995) Masculinities. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Connell, R. and Messerschmidt, J. (2005) Hegemonic masculinity : rethinking the concept. Gender and Society 19: 829–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0891243205278639
Crenshaw, K. (1991) Mapping the margins: intersectionality, identity politics and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review 43: 1241–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1229039
Du Bois, J. (2007) The stance triangle. In R. Englebretson (ed.) Stancetaking in Discourse 139–82. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/pbns.164.07du
Edley, N. and Wetherell, M. (1997) Jockeying for position: the construction of masculine identities. Discourse and Society 8: 203–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0957926597008002004
Ehrlich, S. and Levesque, S. (2011) The strategic marginalization of working class masculinity in a batterers’ treatment programme. Gender and Language 5: 271–301. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/genl.v5i2.271
Frosh, S., Phoenix, A. and Pattman, R. (2000) Cultural contestations in practice: white boys and the racialisation of masculinities. In C. Squire (ed.) Culture in Psychology 45–56. London: Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203361047_chapter_3
Frosh, S., Phoenix, A. and Pattman, R. (2001) Young Masculinities: Understanding Boys in Contemporary Society. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gill, R. (2003) Power and the production of subjects: a genealogy of the New Man and the New Lad. In B. Benwell (ed.) Masculinity and Men’s Lifestyle Magazines 34–56. Oxford: Blackwell. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954x.2003.tb03602.x
Gough, B. (2001) ‘ Biting your tongue’: negotiating masculinities in contemporary Britain. Journal of Gender Studies 10: 169–185. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09589230120053292
Groes-Green, C. (2012) Philogynous masculinities: Contextualizing alternative manhood in Mozambique. Men and Masculinities 15: 91–111. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1097184X11427021
Hearn, J. and Morrell, R. (2012) Reviewing hegemonic masculinities and men in Sweden and South Africa. Men and Masculinities 15: 3–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1097184X11432111
Hopkins, P. (2009) Responding to the ‘crisis of masculinity’: the perspectives of young Muslim men from Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland. Gender, Place and Culture 16: 299–312. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09663690902836334
Jackson, P. (1994) Black male: Advertising and the cultural politics of masculinity. Gender, Place and Culture 1: 49–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09663699408721200
Jackson, P., Stevenson, N. and Brooks, K. (2001) Making Sense of Men’s Magazines. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Jaffe, A. (2009) Introduction: the sociolinguistics of stance. In A. Jaffe (ed.) Stance: Sociolinguistic Perspectives 3–28. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10673220902891794
Jaworski, A. and Thurlow, C. (2009) Taking an elitist stance: ideology and the discursive production of social distinction. In A. Jaffe (ed.) Stance: Sociolinguistic Perspectives 195–226. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331646.003.0009
Kress, G. (1995) The social production of language: history and structures of domination. In P. Fries and M. Gregory (eds) Discourse in Society: Systemic Functional Perspectives 115–40. Westport, CT: Ablex Publishing.
Kulick, D. (2005) The importance of what gets left out. Discourse and Society 7: 615–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461445605054408
Luyt, R. (2012) Constructing hegemonic masculinities in South Africa: the discourse and rhetoric of heteronormativity. Gender and Language 6: 47–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/genl.v6i1.47
McCall, L. (2005) The complexity of intersectionality. Signs 30: 1771–1800. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/426800
McEnery, A., Tono, Y. and Xiao, R. (2006) Corpus-Based Language Studies: An Advanced Resource Book. London: Routledge.
Milani, T. (2013) Are ‘queers’ really ‘queer’? Language, identity and same-sex desire in a South African online community. Discourse and Society 24: 615–633. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0957926513486168
Milani, T. (2015) Theorizing language and masculinities. In T. Milani (ed.) Language and Masculinities: Performances, Intersections, Dislocations 8–33. London: Routledge.
Rutherford, J. (1988) Who’s that man? In R. Chapman and J. Rutherford (eds) Male Order: Unwrapping Masculinity 21–67. London: Lawrence & Wishart.
Segal, L. (1993) Changing men: Masculinities in context. Theory and Society 22: 625–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00993539
Seidler, V. (2006) Transforming Masculinities: Men, Cultures, Bodies, Power, Sex and Love. London: Routledge.
Stubbs, M. (2001) Words and Phrases: Corpus Studies of Lexical Semantics. Oxford: Blackwell.
Walsh, F. (2010) Male Trouble: Masculinity and the Performance of Crisis. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9780230281752
Ward, G. and Birner, B. (2001) Discourse and information structure. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen and H. Hamilton (eds) Handbook of Discourse Analysis 119–37. Oxford: Blackwell.
Weldon, L. (2008) Intersectionality. In G. Goertz and A. Mazur (eds) Politics, Gender and Concepts: Theory and Methodology 193–218. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wetherell, M. and Edley, N. (1999) Negotiating hegemonic masculinity: imaginary positions and psycho-discursive practices. Feminism and Psychology 9: 335–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959353599009003012
Whehelan, I. (2000) Overloaded: Popular Culture and the Future of Feminism. London: Women’s Press.
Yuval-Davis, N. (2011) The Politics of Belonging: Intersectional Contestations. London: Sage.
Published
2016-03-17
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Baker, P., & Levon, E. (2016). ‘That’s what I call a man’: representations of racialised and classed masculinities in the UK print media. Gender and Language, 10(1), 106-139. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v10i1.25401
