Queering Masculinities in Language and Culture

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Giuseppe Balirano, Paul Baker

   Pages 1-17

3. Is the Rectum a Gold Mine? Queer Theory, Consumer Masculinities, and Capital Pleasures

   • Tommaso M. Milani

   Pages 19-42

4. Masculinity and Gay-Friendly Advertising: A Comparative Analysis Between the Italian and US Market

   • Eleonora Federici, Andrea Bernardelli

   Pages 43-64

5. Come and Get Your Love: Starsky & Hutch, Disidentification, and US Masculinities in the 1970s

   • Vincenzo Bavaro

   Pages 65-85

6. The Televisual Representation of Ageing Gay Males: The Case of Vicious

   • Laura Tommaso

   Pages 87-109

7. The Queer Peer: Masculinity and Brotherhood in Cain and Abel Literature and Imagination

   • Paola Di Gennaro

   Pages 111-126

8. An Effortless Voice: Queer Vocality and Transgender Identity in Kim Fu’s For Today I Am a Boy

   • Serena Guarracino

   Pages 127-147

9. Painting Social Change on a Body Canvas: Trans Bodies and Their Social Impact

   • Emilia Di Martino

   Pages 149-173

10. Neapolitan Social-Transgenderism: The Discourse of Valentina OK

    • Annalisa Di Nuzzo

    Pages 175-194

11. Undoing Black Masculinity: Isaac Julien’s Alternative Grammar of Visual Representation

    • Emilio Amideo

    Pages 195-224

12. ‘You Cry Gay, You’re In’: The Case of Asylum Seekers in the UK

    • Maria Cristina Nisco

    Pages 225-250

13. The Object of Subordination Is Immaterial: Discursive Constructions of Masculinity in a Far-Right Online Forum

    • Andrew Brindle

    Pages 251-275

14. Back Matter

    Pages 277-291

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How do we learn what it means to be a man? And how do we learn to question what it means to be a man? This collection comprises a set of original interdisciplinary chapters on the linguistic and cultural representations of queer masculinities in a range of new and older media: television, film, online forums, news reporting, advertising and fiction. This innovative work examines new and emerging forms of gender hybridisation in relation to complex socialisation and immigration contexts including the role of EU institutions in ascertaining asylum seekers’ sexual orientation, and the European laws on gender policy. The book employs numerous analytical approaches including critical discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, multimodal analysis, literary criticism and anthropological and social research. The authors show how such texts can disrupt, question or complicate traditional notions of what it means to be a man, queering the idea that men possess fixed identities or desires, instead arguing that masculinity is constantly changing and negotiated through the cultural and political overlapping contexts in which it is regularly produced. These nuanced analyses will bring fresh insights for students and scholars of gender, masculinity and queer studies, linguistics, anthropology and semiotics.

• queer theory
• language and gender
• masculinity studies
• black studies
• transgender
• critical discourse studies
• consumer masculinities
• LGBT Advertising
• homosexual asylum seekers
• Black Masculinity
• corpus linguistics
• queer media theory
• semiotics
• discourse analysis

“It would serve as an excellent resource for those interested in the masculine side of social constructionism theory as it relates to gender and invites further discussion of queering masculinities in underserved geopolitical areas.” (Ryan C. Redmond, Journal of Language and Sexuality, Vol. 10 (1), 2021)

“Exploring the interface of queer studies with the fields of linguistics, anthropology, semiotics, critical discourse analysis, literary and film studies, the articles in this collection draw a multi-faceted picture of the discursive construction and representation of queer masculinities in a range of text genres and contexts. They engage in fascinating analyses of various aspects of queer masculinities, including issues such as consumer culture, representation in TV series, films, literature and art, intersectionality with trans and racial identities, homophobic discourse and subordination through hegemonic masculinity.” (Heiko Motschenbacher, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen)

“By exploring the entire gamut of the representation of masculinity in both old and new media and across a wide range of disciplines, Baker and Balirano get readers really thinking about what it means to be a man in today’s liquid society. Guaranteed to raise awareness about the diverse ways of being and performing masculinity, the book provides a novel contribution to an exciting new field opening up new avenues for other researchers.” (Delia Chiaro, Professor of English Linguistics and Translation, University of Bologna, Italy, and President of the International Society of Humor Studies)

• Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University, Lancashire, United Kingdom

  Paul Baker

• Literary, Linguistic and Comparative Studies, University of Naples “L’Orientale”, Naples, Italy

  Giuseppe Balirano

Paul Baker is Professor of English Language at Lancaster University, UK. His books include Using Corpora to Analyse Gender (2014), Sexed Texts: Language, Gender and Sexuality (2008), Using Corpora in Discourse Analysis (2006), Public Discourses of Gay Men (2005) and Polari: The Lost Language of Gay Men (2002).


Giuseppe Balirano is Associate Professor in English Linguistics and Translation at the University of Naples “L’Orientale”, Italy. His publications include: Humosexually Speaking: Laughter and the Intersections of Gender (2016, co-edited with Delia Chiaro); Languaging Diversity (with Nisco M.C., 2015); and Masculinity and Representation (2014).

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