The topography of masculine normativities in South Africa

Erez Levon*, Tommaso M. Milani, E. Dimitris Kitis

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this paper, we examine representations of masculinity in the English-language South African print media. Using both quantitative and qualitative techniques to interrogate a large corpus (18 million words) of English-language newspaper articles on masculinity that appeared in South Africa between 2008 and 2014, we investigate the ways in which different South African masculine types are positioned with respect to one another in the media and examine how these positionings draw on broader tropes of gender, race and social class that circulate in South African society. Ultimately, our goal is to provide a more nuanced picture of gender/sexual hegemony in South Africa that goes beyond a simple opposition between dominant versus subordinate forms of masculinity to explore the range of competing normativities in the region. In doing so, we also aim to contribute to debates about the role of norms and normativities in the theorizing of masculinity more broadly.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)514-531
Number of pages18
JournalCritical Discourse Studies
Volume14
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Oct 2017
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Masculinity
  • South Africa
  • corpus-assisted discourse studies
  • hegemony
  • normativities
  • print media

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