1. THE CONSTRUCTION OF MASCULINE IDENTITIES INTHE CONSTRUCTION OF MASCULINE IDENTITIES IN
BRITISH MAGAZINESBRITISH MAGAZINES
Relatore: Antonio PinnaRelatore: Antonio Pinna
Correlatore: Dott. David BrettCorrelatore: Dott. David Brett
Laureanda:Laureanda:
Valeria Eleonora FlorisValeria Eleonora Floris
UNIVERSITA’ DEGLI STUDI DI SASSARI
Dipartimento di Scienze Umanistiche e Sociali

2. TopicTopic
AN INTRO TO SOCIOLINGUISTIC ANALYSIS
● Critical Discourse Analysis
● The categorization of gender
● Masculinity in men's magazines

3. Storey “Cultural Theory and Popular Culture”
(2009)
Ideology:
● a systemic body of ideas articulated by a particular group of
people
● distorted images of reality
● a particular image of the world
● encountered in the practices of everyday life

4. Discourse
● Practice that systematically forms the objects of which it
speaks (Foucault, 1989)
● It works in three ways:
● It enables
● It constrains
● It constitutes

5. Language is..
A discourse:
● It enables me to speak
● It constrains what I can say
● It constitutes me as a speaking subject

6. Critical Discourse Analysis...
● a combination of linguistic and sociological methods for the
analysis of discourse
● It aims to unravel ideological meanings in everyday
discursive practices

7. The analysis is carried out on different
aspects:
● Semantic relations (words and long expressions)
● Grammatical relations (morphological aspects of texts)
●
Vocabulary (collocation, patterns of co-occurrence, lexical bundles
and aspects of phraseology)

8. Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis
1980s: how do images convey meanings?
Barthes's contribution to semiotics (1973-77):
● Images denote
● Images connote

9. Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis
Kress and Van Leeuwen (1996, 2001):
● Attributes (how are objects represented? What kind of discourse
do they communicate?)
● Setting (where are the objects found?)
● Salience (what do the salient aspects communicate?)

10. Gender construction (1)
“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman”
(Simone De Beauvoir, 1949)
“One is not born a woman, one becomes a woman; but farther,
one is not born female, one becomes female; but even more
radically, one can if one chooses become neither female nor
male, neither woman nor man.”
(Judith Butler, 1999)

11. Gender construction (2)
It has several consequences in society:
● It gives way to the categorization of gender;
● It draws people into particular positions and identities;
● It creates stereotypes.

12. Easthope's Dominant Masculinity (1986)
Men are due to construct themselves on the ground of the myth
of heterosexual masculinity.
A man must be:
● Tough;
● Assertive;
● Masterful;
● Ready to any circumstances;
● Always in control.

13. Men's crisis
The advent of the independent and self-sufficient woman in society
has implied the decline of the traditional role for man.
“Men may not be able to fit into their traditional role, but that's no
reason to conclude that life is over for men. Men just have to find a
new, modern, useful place for themselves in the world-just as
women have to. And this is where mass media and popular culture
come in, because they offer important tools to help men- and
women- adjust to contemporary life.”
(Gauntlett, 2008)

14. Masculinity in men's British magazines
My analysis focuses on three man stereotypes:
● The Italian Stallion type (Men's Health)
● The Nerd type (FHM)
● The Existentialist type (Loaded)

15. The Italian Stallion type (1)

16. The Italian Stallion type (2)
Results:
● Pale skin
● Thin shape marked
● Geek but determined look
MCDA:
● Salience: high light exposition
and high saturation
● Distance: medium shot
● Transitivity: naïve gaze

17. The Italian Stallion type (2)
Results:
● Represented as a classic Greek
statue
● Muscles well-defined
● Severe and serious look
MCDA:
● Salience: high light exposition,
low tones, medium contrast
● Distance: medium shot
● Transitivity: aggressive gaze

18. The Italian Stallion type (3)
CDA:
● Clear opposition between the two figures
(e.g. 'The skinny boy who became a mountain of a man is now poised to
become even bigger than his body')
● Several references to Joe Manganiello's physical body
(e.g.'Highly trained physique'; 'He has become bigger, stronger, more
athletic and better defined'; 'supreme/new shape')
● Use of metaphors and similes related to forces of nature and
animals
(e.g. 'A mountain of a man'; 'A very different beast'; 'I hit the gym like an
animal')

19. The Nerd type (1)

20. The Nerd type (2)
MCDA:
● Pose: Heroic
● Gaze: upward, off frame
● Setting: Blue background, surrounded by megaphones and questions
about science
● Salience: high saturated colours, filter sharpened at the centre of the
image, moderate light exposition, medium contrast

21. The Nerd type (3)
CDA:
● High use of honorifics
(e.g. 'Professor': 'Internationally recognized particle physicist'; 'One of the
world's most well-known communicators of science'; 'Passionate
campaigner')
● Positive qualities
(e.g. 'Lovely face'; 'The familiar face of science'; 'The softly-softly Brian';
'Friendly smile')

22. The Existentialist type (1)

23. The Existentialist type (2)
MCDA:
● Salience: Filter sharpened, light exposition focused at the centre
of the image, high contrast, borders faded
● Gaze: Serious and charming
● Pose: Resolute but calm

24. The Existentialist type (3)
CDA:
● Use of stative verbs expressing feelings and emotions
(e.g. 'Pearce exudes Zen-like calm'; 'I miss my family and my dogs';
'He prefers the company of women'; 'He loves and plays Aussie
football')
● Use of hedges
(e.g. 'Some sort of level'; 'I suppose'; 'Kind of stuff'; 'He reckons')

25. Final results
● The Italian Stallion type sticks to the classic representation of
masculinity (references to the ancient Greek statues)
● The Nerd type is depicted as a respectable and well-acclaimed man
(positive signs of his acceptance in society)
● The Existentialist type shows men how to express their feelings
and how to be in control of their lives (representation of a resolute
but also sensitive man)

26. Conclusion
My study has shown that:
● Modern society is getting more flexible
● The representation of masculinity in mass media is changing
● Gender construction does not prevent men from re-elaborating more
suitable styles according to their own personality

27. References
A) PUBLICATIONS:
● De Beauvoir, Simone, Le Deuxième Sexe, France, Gallimard, 2010.
● Fairclough, Norman, Analysing Discourse, London, Routledge,
2003.
● Gauntlett, David, Media, Gender and Identity, An Introduction,
Great Britain, Routledge, 2008.
● Machin, David and Mayr, Andrea, How to do Critical Discourse
Analysis, A Multimodal Introduction, Glasgow, Sage, 2012.
● Storey, John, Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, An
Introduction, Harlow, Pearson and Longman, 2009.

28. References
B) MAGAZINES:
● Brightmore, Dan, “Humanity is so fragile”, Loaded UK, The Heroes
Issue, January 2015, (pp. 90-95) .
● Masoliver, Daniel, “We meet the professor”, FHM UK, n.299,
November 2014, (pp. 44-49) .
● Morton, David, “From Scrawny to Brawny”, Men's Health, The
Body Transformation Issue, September 2014, (pp. 46-51)