Activities per year
Abstract
This article looks at discourses of masculinity in the social media performance of US President Donald Trump. The article discusses the implications of these for the normalisation of regressive forms of masculinity in public discourse, where normalisation is the process of co-opting otherwise deviant behaviours by integrating them into institutional practice. The article begins by exploring ways in which Trump’s social media performance exhibits the characteristics of "hypermasculinity". The analysis then turns to the everyday expression of traditionally macho masculinity by Trump by conducting a search for tokens of the masculine-gendered nouns "man" and "guy", and using critical discourse analysis to reveal the use of these in exercising gendered forms of judgement. Of particular importance is the informal "guy", through which Trump defines challengers within power-based masculine oppositions. Overall, we find that while the concept of hypermasculinity is useful in describing provocative displays of "bad behaviour" oriented-towards a populist style of leadership, but that Trump routinely produces more banal types of masculine performance that objectify allies and opponents within a gendered hierarchy, and may be said to normalise regressive forms of masculinity within the prevailing political culture.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 547-562 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | Social Semiotics |
Volume | 30 |
Issue number | 4 |
Early online date | 26 May 2020 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 7 Aug 2020 |
Keywords
- presidential communication
- politics and gender
- hypermasculinity
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Tough guys and little rocket men: @RealDonaldTrump's Twitter feed and the normalisation of banal masculinity'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.-
Donald Trump and the manosphere
Higgins, M. (Recipient)
10 Sept 2024Activity: Public Engagement and Outreach › Media Participation
-
What does the death of Twitter mean for Scottish politics?
Higgins, M. (Recipient)
3 Jul 2023Activity: Public Engagement and Outreach › Media Participation
-
2020 US Presidential Elections: Panel Discussion
Higgins, M. (Speaker)
13 Jan 2021Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk