Projecting masculinities or breaking sociolinguistic norms? The role of women’s representation in students’ profane language use

Authors

  • Grace Diabah University of Ghana

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.37943

Keywords:

masculinity, Ghana, music, women, men, profane language

Abstract

This paper explores how students from University of Ghana’s Commonwealth Hall (the only all-male hall of residence) project diverse masculine identities through how they represent women in their use of profanity and other uncouth linguistic forms. Data were collected from recorded profane songs, observations from various case studies of the use of insults and profane expressions and interviews with users of these expressions. The data generally present a picture of sexual and verbal abuse as ‘ideal’ ways of showing male dominance and power over women. These abuses are valued by the students, even though they are not expected practices in Ghanaian society. The paper concludes that although some students claim they use this language ‘just for fun’, disguising it as harmless only makes it easy to explore obsessions without a sense of guilt. If not properly checked, such obsessions may find expression in how women are treated.

Author Biography

  • Grace Diabah, University of Ghana

    Grace Diabah is a senior lecturer at the Department of Linguistics, University of Ghana. She has a PhD and a master of research in applied linguistics from Lancaster University (UK). Grace is a post-doctoral fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies’ African Humanities Program (ACLS-AHP) and Building a New Generation of Academics in Africa (BANGA-Africa, with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York). Her teaching and research focus on gender and language, and language use in specific domains (e.g. business). Some of her scholarly works include ‘From “Recharger” to “Gidi Power”: The representation of male sexual power in Ghanaian radio commercials’ (Critical Discourse Studies, 2015), ‘To dance or not to dance: masculinities in Akan proverbs and their implications for contemporary societies’ (Ghana Journal of Linguistics, 2018), and ‘Caring supporters or daring usurpers? The representation of women in Akan proverbs’ (Discourse and Society, 2014).

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Published

2020-05-21

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Diabah, G. (2020). Projecting masculinities or breaking sociolinguistic norms? The role of women’s representation in students’ profane language use. Gender and Language, 14(1), 99-120. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.37943