‘The perfect man, the proper man’

Construals of masculinities in Nitro, a Greek men’s lifestyle magazine – an exploratory study

Authors

  • Konstantia Kosetzi Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  • Alexandra Polyzou Lancaster University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v3i2.143

Keywords:

masculinities, Greek men’s lifestyle magazines, CDA

Abstract

In this paper we examine the representation of masculinities in Greek men’s lifestyle magazines. We are applying Norman Fairclough’s framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (2001a, b; 2003) to analyse an issue of Nitro, a prototypical and high in circulation Greek men’s lifestyle magazine. The framework links social and cultural changes (in our case in gender relations) with discursive changes manifested through interdiscursivity, which is the focus of this paper. We look at the amalgam of discourses employed, on the basis of linguistic traces of these discourses in the text. The magazine draws mainly on hegemonic discourses of masculinity, asserting a ‘Real Male’ discursive construct and discrediting non-hegemonic masculinities. This can be mainly linked to social changes in Greece related to reactions to feminist progress, consumerism and possibly to the influence of international lifestyle magazines.

Author Biographies

  • Konstantia Kosetzi, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

    DR. KONSTANTIA KOSETZI holds a PhD in Linguistics from Lancaster University, U.K. (2007). Her PhD thesis is a Critical Discourse Analysis study of a Greek TV series, Schedon Pote, where she analysed women’s representations in terms of gender roles and sexual practices in the ‘text’ and in viewers’ responses, all in relation to the position of women in Greek society. She is currently lecturing at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Her research interests are related to Critical Discourse Analysis, Gender and Language, Media Studies and Methods of Qualitative Research.

  • Alexandra Polyzou, Lancaster University

    ALEXANDRA POLYZOU is a research student at the Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University, U.K. For the past 3 years she has been teaching seminars on the module ‘Understanding Media’ at the same Department. She has written and held conference presentations on language, gender and sexuality in Greek lifestyle magazines, genre analysis and presupposition. Her research interests include Cognitive Linguistics, especially Frame Semantics and Cognitive Metaphor Theory, issues of language, gender and sexuality, and Critical Discourse Analysis. The focus of her PhD Thesis is on the manifestation of gender ideologies in Greek lifestyle magazines. Her most recent work includes editing the peer-reviewed volume Papers from the Lancaster University Postgraduate Conference in Linguistics and Language Teaching (LAEL PG): Volume 2, jointly with Majid KhosraviNik.

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Published

2010-06-02

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Kosetzi, K., & Polyzou, A. (2010). ‘The perfect man, the proper man’: Construals of masculinities in Nitro, a Greek men’s lifestyle magazine – an exploratory study. Gender and Language, 3(2), 143-180. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v3i2.143