DOCSLIB.ORG

Beatin' the Queer Into the Broadsheets: a Semiotic Analysis of News Reports on Crimes Involving Queer Social Actors

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Beatin' the Queer Into the Broadsheets: a Semiotic Analysis of News Reports on Crimes Involving Queer Social Actors Felipe Leandro de Jesus BEATIN’ THE QUEER INTO THE BROADSHEETS: A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF NEWS REPORTS ON CRIMES INVOLVING QUEER SOCIAL ACTORS Dissertação submetida ao Programa de Pós-graduação em Inglês: Estudos Linguísticos e Literários da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina para a obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Inglês. Orientadora: Profª Drª Carmen Rosa Caldas-Coulthard. Florianópolis 2015 Felipe Leandro de Jesus BEATIN’ THE QUEER INTO THE BROADSHEETS: A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF NEWS REPORTS ON CRIMES INVOLVING QUEER SOCIAL ACTORS Esta Dissertação foi julgada adequada para obtenção do Título de “Mestre”, e aprovada em sua forma final pelo Programa de Pós Graduação em Inglês: Estudos Linguísticos e Literários. Florianópolis, 11 de agosto de 2015. ________________________ Prof.ª Anelise Reich Corseuil, Dr.ª Coordenadora do Curso Banca Examinadora: ________________________ Prof.ª Carmen Rosa Caldas-Coulthard, Dr.ª Orientadora Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina ________________________ Prof.ª Viviane Maria Heberle, Dr.ª Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina ________________________ Prof.ª Débora de Carvalho Figueiredo, Dr. ª Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina ________________________ Prof.ª Ana Cristina Ostermann, Dr. ª Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos I dedicate this work to all those who feel prejudice slashing their skins through the utterance of words. AGRADECIMENTOS Sempre fiquei em dúvida como esta seção deveria ser escrita. A obrigatoriedade de escrever a dissertação em inglês sempre gerou uma pergunta dentro de mim: devo eu escrever os agradecimentos em qual idioma? Quando escrevo em inglês, tenho a impressão que as palavras nunca saem com carinho e afeto, desta maneira reservo a estes sentimentos a língua do meu coração. Primeiramente, eu dedico esta dissertação a todos aqueles que sofrem com preconceito de qualquer natureza em relação a sua sexualidade, seja este preconceito expresso de forma verbal, física, emocional ou psicológica. Carmen, obrigado por ter sido uma orientadora maravilhosa durante este período. Você é muito inspiradora e sabe o que está fazendo. E obrigado por ser dura comigo algumas vezes, eu preciso. Agradeço do fundo do meu coração cheio de fofocas a presença da Helena na minha vida. Nunca fui capaz de expressar com palavras o que sinto por você, talvez por vergonha ou por achar brega e awkward, mas com certeza você foi a melhor companhia que eu poderia ter tido por todos estes anos. Sempre presente, pronta pra conversar, divagar, procrastinar, rir, reclamar, fofocar e jogar veneno junto comigo. Me apoiar, me ajudar, torcer por mim. Realmente sinto muito que teremos que nos separar por enquanto, what am I supposed to do without my favorite bad bitch? Agradeço aos amigos que surgiram no meu tempo de UFSC nos últimos quatro anos e alguma coisa. Claro que não conseguirei citar todos aqui, mas se você é meu amigo/a, saiba que foi muito importante neste processo. Day, com quem eu criei uma forte amizade baseada em reclamações da vida, minha linda diva pessoal. Tanise, que foi e voltou já tantas vezes mas sempre continuou presente. Felipe, amigo, que sempre me divertiu horrores em nossas conversas. Ana, amiga, sempre gostosíssima e poderosa jogando seu charme no mundo. Samuel e Fabrício, meus maravilhosos colegas de apartamento junto com a Helena nestes últimos tempos. Thanks for the good times and laughs, vocês me ensinaram muito e eu sou extremamente grato por isso. Débora, Susana e Vivi, vocês são amigas e professoras que definitivamente nunca esquecerei. Pessoas magnificas com quem pude compartilhar muitos momentos e que me ensinaram muito. Agradeço à Professora Ana Cristina Ostermann, que junto com a Vivi e a Débora gentilmente aceitou ler esta dissertação. Eu gostaria de agradecer à CAPES por me garantir uma bolsa de estudos para que eu pudesse prosseguir com os estudos de mestrado. Sem este apoio financeiro teria sido muito mais difícil chegar onde eu cheguei. Também gostaria de agradecer à Comissão Fulbright por me fornecer uma bolsa de estudos para trabalhar na Emory University como professor assistente. Esta oportunidade me deu o gás que eu previsava para terminar esta pesquisa antes de partir. To Mary Jane, for I would not have been who I am today without you. Ao pessoal da secretaria da PGI (tanto os que já foram como os que estão). Vocês sempre foram/são de grande ajuda e me apoiaram deste o começo. Dudu, obrigado por todos os favores. Aos meus pais, que mesmo com todas as suas limitações, sempre me ajudaram muito e me apoiaram a sempre seguir em frente. Ao Rafael, por ter sempre sido a pessoa mais amável do mundo e por ter sido compreensível em todos os momentos, até em momentos que não deveria ter sido. Por estar sempre ao meu lado me apoiando, me fazendo companhia, me ajudando, me dando atenção, afeto, carinho, massagem e amor. Pelo bom humor, pelas risadas, pelas piadas. Obrigado também por compreender toda esta correria que andou a minha vida. Você é tudo que eu poderia ter pedido. I have an idea that there is a continuity from the living of life on the one hand right down to the morpheme on the other. Ruqaiya Hasan ABSTRACT This study aims at analyzing, through the perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis and Queer Theory, how explicit semiotic choices represent queer social actors in news reports of crimes. The data of this thesis is composed of fifteen news reports retrieved from the British news website Mail Online (the online version of the British tabloid Daily Mail) and from the Brazilian news website G1. These news reports concerned three different cases: the Dewani Case in the United Kingdom, and the Veronica and Lamp Cases in Brazil. The verbal language of the news reports was analyzed in terms of the representation of social actors (van Leeuwen, 2008), Systemic Functional Grammar (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014) and Appraisal Theory (Martin & White, 2014). In order to conduct a multimodal analysis of the visual resources present in the news reports, I used multimodal tools of analysis (Machin, 2007) and categories from the Grammar of Visual Design (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996). The findings of this thesis point to partiality and manipulation on the part of the media when it comes to supporting one of the sides involved in crimes, especially in the case of queer criminals. These social actors have their non-normative sexuality/gender identity represented as a core part of their criminal identity. Through these representations, the media also reinforces bias and reproduces prejudicial discourses regarding queerness, a group of identities that compose an always already zone of abjection. Keywords: queer; media discourse; critical discourse analysis; representation; sexuality; gender identity; news; systemic functional linguistics. Number of pages: 173 Number of words: 30.794 RESUMO Este estudo tem como objetivo analisar, através da perspectiva da Análise Crítica do Discurso e da Teoria Queer, como escolhas semióticas explícitas representam atores sociais queer em reportagens de crimes. O corpus desta dissertação é composto por quinze reportagens de crimes extraídas do portal britânico de notícias Mail Online (a versão online do tablóide britânico Daily Mail) e do portal brasileiro de notícias G1. Estas reportagens trataram de três casos diferentes: o Caso Verônica e o Caso da Lampadada no Brasil e o Caso Dewani no Reino Unido. A linguagem verbal das reportagens foi analisada em relação à representação dos atores sociais (van Leeuwen, 2008), Gramática Sistêmico-Funcional (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014) e Teoria da Avaliatividade (Martin & White, 2014). Para conduzir uma análise multimodal dos recursos visuais empregados nas reportagens, foram utilizadas ferramentas de análise da teoria da multimodalidade (Machin, 2007) e categorias da Gramática do Design Visual (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996). Os resultados desta dissertação apontam para imparcialidade e manipulação por parte da mídia no que tange o apoio a um dos lados envolvidos nos crimes, principalmente no caso de criminosos queer. Estes atores sociais tem sua sexualidade ou identidade de gênero não normativa representada como uma parte central da sua identidade criminosa. Através destas representações, a mídia reforça estereótipos e reproduz discursos preconceituosos relacionados a sexualidades não normativas, um grupo de identidades que compõem uma constante zona de abjeção. Palavras-chave: queer; discurso da mídia; análise crítica do discurso; representação; sexualidade; identidade de gênero; notícias; linguística sistêmico-funcional. Número de páginas: 173 Número de palavras: 30.794 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 - Context of situation and metafunctions ................................. 37 Figure 2 - Stratification of language ...................................................... 38 Figure 3- Gay man facing the camera 1 ................................................. 74 Figure 4 - Gay man facing the camera 2 ................................................ 74 Figure 5 - Men from a gay dating website page .................................... 76 Figure 6 - Man's face hidden in the dark ............................................... 77 Figure 7 - Leopold Leisser I ................................................................... 78 Figure 8 - Leopold Leisser II ................................................................. 78 Figure 9 - Dewani and Anni depicted as a happy couple ...................... 79 Figure 10 - Dewani's gaze ...................................................................... 80 Figure
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Pity the Poor Citizen Complainant
    ADVICE, INFORMATION. RESEARCH & TRAINING ON MEDIA ETHICS „Press freedom is a responsibility exercised by journalists on behalf of the public‟ PITY THE POOR CITIZEN COMPLAINANT Formal statement of evidence to The Leveson Inquiry into the Culture, Practice & Ethics of the Press The MediaWise Trust University of the West of England, Bristol BS16 2JP 0117 93 99 333 www.mediawise.org.uk Documents previously submitted i. Freedom and Responsibility of the Press: Report of Special Parliamentary Hearings (M Jempson, Crantock Communications, 1993) ii. Stop the Rot, (MediaWise submission to Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee hearings on privacy, 2003) iii. Satisfaction Guaranteed? Press complaints systems under scrutiny (R Cookson & M Jempson (eds.), PressWise, 2004) iv. The RAM Report: Campaigning for fair and accurate coverage of refugees and asylum-seekers (MediaWise, 2005) v. Getting it Right for Now (MediaWise submission to PCC review, 2010) vi. Mapping Media Accountability - in Europe and Beyond (Fengler et al (eds.), Herbert von Halem, 2011) The MediaWise Trust evidence to the Leveson Inquiry PITY THE POOR CITIZEN COMPLAINANT CONTENTS 1. The MediaWise Trust: Origins, purpose & activities p.3 2. Working with complainants p.7 3. Third party complaints p.13 4. Press misbehaviour p.24 5. Cheque-book journalism, copyright and photographs p.31 6. ‗Self-regulation‘, the ‗conscience clause‘, the Press Complaints Commission and the Right of Reply p.44 7. Regulating for the future p.53 8. Corporate social responsibility p.59 APPENDICES pp.61-76 1. Trustees, Patrons & Funders p.61 2. Clients & partners p.62 3. Publications p.64 4. Guidelines on health, children & suicide p.65 5.
    [Show full text]
  • Gamesmanship and PR
    Public Relations: Rules, Gamesmanship and the Professional Project – Why academics must confront the realities of practice CAMILLA NOTHHAFT, HOWARD NOTHHAFT, SARA VON PLATEN, PHILIP YOUNG Lund University Department of Strategic Communication Working Papers in Strategic Communication · 2014:1 Contents PR as gamesmanship 5! Doing it by the book 8! What PR ‘really’ does: Non-fiction accounts 10! What PR ‘really’ does: Accounts in fiction 14! Conclusion 19! References 20! 2 Since my intention is to say something that will prove of practical use to the inquirer, I have thought it prop- er to represent things as they are in real truth, rather than as they are imagined. Niccolo Machiavelli (quoted in Shea, 1988). Some textbooks treat PR as though it is a branch of moral philosophy. Such an approach leaves most PR practitioners bemused and is of limited practical use. Trevor Morris & Simon Goldsworthy, PR Today, The Authoritative Guide to Public Relations, p.41 Many would agree the grand narrative of modern public relations is that of professionali- zation. The story presented by professional associations and academics alike tells of a discipline that, in the course of the 20th century, groped its way out of the darkness of unethical, undemocratic, manipulative practice into the light of mature understanding, where strict adherence to values such as transparency, honesty, and integrity, as well as devotion to public and societal values, is recognized as the only viable long-term strategy (cf. Hoy, Raaz & Wehmeier 2007). Professional associations, such as the PRSA (USA), the CIPR (UK), the DPRG (Germany), and Sveriges Kommunikatörer (Sweden), assure us that professional behaviour in PR is not only desirable, but is the key to success.
    [Show full text]
  • The Death of Spin? Communication in the 21St Century
    The Death of Spin? Communication in the 21st Century George Pitcher Open access. Some rights reserved. As the publisher of this work, Demos has an open access policy which enables anyone to access our content electronically without charge. We want to encourage the circulation of our work as widely as possible without affecting the ownership of the copyright, which remains with the copyright holder. Users are welcome to download, save, perform or distribute this work electronically or in any other format, including in foreign language translation without written permission subject to the conditions set out in the Demos open access licence which you can read here. Please read and consider the full licence. The following are some of the conditions imposed by the licence: · Demos and the author(s) are credited; · The Demos website address (www.demos.co.uk) is published together with a copy of this policy statement in a prominent position; · The text is not altered and is used in full (the use of extracts under existing fair usage rights is not affected by this condition); · The work is not resold; · A copy of the work or link to its use online is sent to the address below for our archive. By downloading publications, you are confirming that you have read and accepted the terms of the Demos open access licence. Copyright Department Demos Elizabeth House 39 York Road London SE1 7NQ United Kingdom [email protected] You are welcome to ask for permission to use this work for purposes other than those covered by the Demos open access licence.
    [Show full text]
  • Privacy, Probity and Public Interest Whittle and Cooper Cover Image © Reuters © Image Cover , –7 the Independent
    Whittle and Cooper cover C:Layout 1 01/07/2009 15:43 Page 1 RISJ REUTERS REUTERS CHALLENGES INSTITUTE for the STUDY of INSTITUTE for the JOURNALISM CHALLENGES STUDY of JOURNALISM | Privacy, probity and public interest probity Privacy, “'Privacy, Probity and Public Interest' shows how privacy has come Privacy, probity and to be both better protected by the courts and more widely ignored: big questions, riveting examples and sharp analysis.” Baroness Onora O'Neill, President of the British Academy and public interest Professor of Philosophy, Cambridge University “is report is from the frontline. Although it contains an admirable survey of the law and the stance of the regulators, it does much more. It gives interested parties a voice. e authors provide their own thoughtful commentary; they do not shirk the difficult questions. Stephen Whittle and Glenda Cooper Everyone should be interested in this debate, and I wholeheartedly commend this report to anyone who is.” Andrew Caldecott, QC, Specialist in Media Law “An erudite and compelling exposition of one of the most important ethical dilemmas facing British Journalism in the internet era. e authors identify a route towards a new journalism that can respect privacy without compromising its democratic obligation to hold power to account.” Tim Luckhurst Professor of Journalism, University of Kent Stephen Whittle is a journalist and was the BBC's Controller of Editorial Policy (2001–2006). As Controller, he was involved in some of the most high profile BBC investigations such as The Secret Policeman, Licence To Kill, and Panoramas on the Olympics and care of the elderly.
    [Show full text]
  • For Distribution to Cps MODI 00059945
    For Distribution to CPs of svSAK frank aiFFORD The foilowing is a statement of Oiy answem to the questions ssrt out in Itte letter to me rtf T4 JatutatY, from Kiirs Brndenelh Solicitor to the leveson inquiry. U) eeris case the answer appears below in hold type after the <[ueutiort. (1) Who are you and a brief summary of your career history in public relations? following a brief career in local |oumaiism i loined EMi records iu the early i960's as a press officer promoting EMi artists and their records. At that time there was no public relations Industry in Britsdo. It? :197'1 I formed my tewn PB coftipany; iVla?: Clifford Associates, initially rcpreseotirig pop stars and eotertainers. In the early years, my business was all about prontotlon but as time went by 1 became increasingly lovoived with protecting dients often from their own excssces as well as the excesses of the media. As my business grew, so did the range of clients and 1 began to represerit a wider range of clients - stars hut also companies, osianisotions and events, I have never plfchad for business;. Throughout my professional career, which gives me as much pleasure and satisfaction now as it did front the very start, 1 have always tried to pot a lot back as 1 get so much out Cff what I do, I am in the fortunate peasitfon of being able to help a lot of charities as well as individuals In fundraismg, av/areness and support. To that end, I lidve been ciosety involved with many charities since the 1960s and am currently Patron, Ambassador or in other ways involved with several national charitiers.
    [Show full text]
  • Rolf Harris, Max Clifford Latest Savile Scandal Arrests
    NowNow inin OurOur 31st31st Year!Year! Vol. 31 No. 2 May 2013 Mrs Thatcher Rolf Harris, Max Clifford Laid To Rest Latest Savile Scandal Arrests ROLF HARRIS, the veteran He also has hosted es involve seven female complainants who In St Paul’s entertainer who has released television shows, painted were between the ages of 14 and 19 at the By Jill Lawless and an official portrait of the times of the alleged assaults, they added in Cassandra Vinograd hit singles and painted the queen for her 80th birthday a statement. Queen’s portrait, has been in 2006, and performed at Clifford, con- MARGARET THATCHER the monarch’s Diamond sidered an af- was laid to rest April 17 with arrested as part of a police Jubilee concert last year. fable and sage investigation into sexual abuse A dozen people have “go to” guy for prayers and ceremony, plus allegations stemming from the been arrested as part of celebrities em- cheers and occasional jeers, as the Yewtree investigation, broiled in public Britain paused to remember Jimmy Savile scandal, British including former pop star relations fiascos, Gary Glitter and come- was arrested in a leader who transformed the media reported April 19. Also dian Freddie Starr. Former December 2012. country – for the better accord- arrested separately last month chauffeur David Smith, 66, Max Clifford He said Friday is the only person to have he’s been in a ing to many, but in some eyes for was publicist Max Clifford. been charged. “24/7 nightmare” the worse. Major media outlets followed The Only days following the since then and Soaring hymns, Biblical verse and fond Sun newspaper in identifying Harris, arrest of Harris, prominent vowed to clear remembrances echoed under the dome of an Australian-born artist, musician and celebrity publicist Max his name.
    [Show full text]
  • Turning a Good Newsroom Bad: White Collar Crime, Tort and Case Management Issues Arising from the UK Phone Hacking Scandal
    Turning a good newsroom bad: White collar crime, tort and case management issues arising from the UK phone hacking scandal Judge Gibson, President, Judiciary Working Group1, Union Internationale des Avocats 55th Congress 1 November, 2011 - Miami “Wrongdoers turned a good newsroom bad and this was not fully understood or adequately pursued.” James Murdoch, 7 July 20112. “A mighty, wealthy family-run organization that can effectively buy up politicians and police officers: we feel we have a word for that, and it originates in Sicily rather than Sydney.” Jonathan Freedland, “10 days that shook Britain”, The Guardian, 16 July 2011. “Do our media brethren really want to invite Congress and prosecutors to regulate how journalists gather the news?” Editorial, Wall Street Journal, 19 July 2011 Introduction Phone tapping, computer hacking and other illegal means of information gathering can intrude into the privacy of every person who has ever used a telephone or computer. Although the information illegally obtained may be sold for large sums, ruin rival businesses or reputations, or be used to commit crimes, criminal penalties have been derisory, particularly where the information gathered has related to the private life of persons in the news3.This discussion paper looks at how a lack of 1 This draft discussion paper (31 July 2011) is circulated for comment and corrections prior to the Judiciary Working Group session at the UIA Miami congress. An updated and amended copy of the paper, which reviews legal issues arising from the use (or abuse) of news-gathering technology and the “phone hacking scandal”, will be provided at the Congress.
    [Show full text]
  • Rolf Harris Sex Abuse Arrest TV Legend, 83, Quizzed Over Assault Claim
    Monday, April 29, 2013 Rolf Harris sex abuse arrest TV legend, 83, quizzed over assault claim Arrested ... TV legend Rolf Harris WORLD EXCLUSIVE By TOM MORGAN Published: 19th April 2013 ROLF Harris has been arrested on suspicion of sex offences, The Sun can reveal. The 83-year-old TV star and singer was held over historic sex abuse allegations by police from the inquiry set up following the Jimmy Savile scandal. Senior detectives have been investigating Harris, who once painted the Queen, for more than four months. Telly appearances ... Harris on Animal Clinic CHANNEL 5 Cops first raided his Berkshire home on November 24 last year — but he was not at home. He was interviewed under caution on November 29 after attending a South London police premises by appointment. Harris, who has performed several gigs and appeared on TV since emerging as a suspect, was then arrested on March 28. The arrest, over alleged offences not linked to Savile, came two days before his 83rd birthday. Painting ... star with portrait of the Queen in 2005 Scotland Yard said: “An 82-year-old man from Berkshire was arrested by officers on Operation Yewtree on suspicion of sexual offences. “He has been bailed to a date in May pending further enquiries. The individual falls under the strand of the investigation we have termed ‘others’.” Denies wrongdoing ... Harris Police have refused to give any details of the allegations. It is understood Harris vehemently denies any wrongdoing. More than a million people tuned in on Wednesday night to watch Rolf’s Animal Clinic on Channel 5.
    [Show full text]
  • Anna Cox Deciareds ‘But Fm Old Enou^ to Know When 1 Dusked to a Hideaway for a Photo Shoot As the Sun Polished Its Been Used.’ Coop
    For Distribution to CPs 338 Great Parliamentary Scandals Great Parliamentary Scandals realised the MP wotdd not lea¥e his wife. Tm not old enouj.'.'. :: The next day, Wednesday 27 March, the 17-year-old was vote/ Anna Cox deciareds ‘but Fm old enou^ to know when 1 dusked to a hideaway for a photo shoot as the Sun polished its been used.’ coop. By now Anna Cox was hot property. A fee of £25,000 was The timing was fortunate for Labour. That week the Tories j. :-..i llegediy agreed. Sky Television was called in to shoot a video. inflicted real wounds over the Opposition’s plans for extending 3iat evening, the MP was doorstepped outside Ms home. Piers Trade Union rights. TTien in the space of 24 hours Tim Smiii. -d Merchant stared at the fuzzy black and wMte prints the Sun been forced to resign over cash in brown paper envelopesj pres?. j..‘c eporter offered him, and admits he said too much: ‘That may well had intensified on Neil Hamilton (see pp. 353-65) - and >' »e me kissing her in the pictures, but I see nothing wrong in that, Piers Merchant had been cau ^t on candid camera. The focus was am sure my wife will not be the slightest bit concerned . You back on Tory Sleaze. ' ttust have a very weird sense o f values if you see anything wrong Merchant says he first met Anna Cox (at a Young Conserv.v;.\ r '//ith kissing a girl in the park. Anna is a very dear friend of mine meeting) for ‘ten seconds’ several months before but did not see i’ld has been helping with my campaign.
    [Show full text]
  • Discussing Homosexuality on Association Football
    IRS0010.1177/1012690213475437International Review for the Sociology of SportCleland 4754372013 Article International Review for the Sociology of Sport Discussing homosexuality 2015, Vol. 50(2) 125 –140 © The Author(s) 2013 on association football fan Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav message boards: A changing DOI: 10.1177/1012690213475437 irs.sagepub.com cultural context Jamie Cleland Loughborough University, UK Abstract This article presents the findings of a discourse analysis carried out on 48 association football (soccer) message boards from across the United Kingdom concerning fans’ views towards the presence of gay footballers. It draws on over 3000 anonymous posts to examine whether hegemonic or more inclusive forms of masculinity existed. The overall findings are that, despite evidence of heteronormativity and some orthodox views towards homosexuality, a majority of supporters demonstrate more inclusivity through the rejection of posts that they feel have pernicious homophobic intent. Rather than avoiding any contestation of these orthodox posts, fans frequently challenge them and suggest that on-the-field performance is what is valued the most. Keywords fans, football, homophobia, Internet, masculinity, message boards, sexuality Introduction Although organized sport has various meanings for men, one constant feature throughout its contemporary history has been the demonstration of socially acceptable forms of heteromasculinity (Plummer, 1999; Wellard, 2009). This is often recognized in the male- dominated, popular contact team sport of British football (or soccer), where heteromas- culine expression and embodiment have been historically engrained in boys and men (Dunning, 1999). During the 1980s and 1990s, increasing academic attention was given to sexuality and sport, most of which suggested that the environment for a gay athlete was intimidating and homophobic (Messner and Sabo, 1990; Pronger, 1990).
    [Show full text]
  • 22 Eastenders and the Manufacture of Celebrity Anthony
    EastEnders and the Manufacture of Celebrity Anthony McNicholas Communication and Media Research Institute University of Westminster Keywords: BBC, celebrity, publicity, professionalism, private lives, tabloid press Abstract When EastEnders launched in February 1985 it represented a new approach by the BBC to programme making in many ways. One of these was publicity. Traditionally, the BBC put little effort into programme promotion but for EastEnders a much more professional approach was adopted and more resources employed. In part the publicity was based on the real life histories of the actors involved, many of whom had been cast because they had similar backgrounds to the characters they played. However, the full-blooded entry of the BBC, the UK’s largest cultural producer into the business of publicity was to have unforeseen consequences, as the tabloid press, following a logic of its own created the kind of feeding frenzy around the actors’ private lives with which we are so familiar today. The launch of EastEnders, it is argued, represents therefore a significant moment in recent British cultural history as the private lives of relatively minor characters, as much as their on screen personas became public property. Introduction Social phenomena such as celebrity culture are not uniform across the globe though they may be present very widely. They are inflected differently, and ‘have numerous points of origin, numerous points of change’ (Turner 2004, 12) in the various places where they occur depending on the nature of the society out of which they both come and inform. In the UK, we ‘celebrate’ if that is the word, certain individuals or classes of people in our own distinct way.
    [Show full text]
  • Fans, Homophobia and Masculinities in Association Football: Evidence of a More
    The British Journal of Sociology 2012 Volume 63 Issue 2 Fans, homophobia and masculinities in association football: evidence of a more inclusive environmentbjos_1414 370..387 Ellis Cashmore and Jamie Cleland Abstract This article draws on 3,500 responses from fans and professionals involved in association football (soccer) to an anonymous online survey posted from June 2010 to October 2010 regarding their views towards gay footballers. The overall findings are that, contrary to assumptions of homophobia, there is evidence of rapidly decreasing homophobia within the culture of football fandom. The results advance inclusive masculinity theory with 93 per cent of fans of all ages stating that there is no place for homophobia within football. Fans blame agents and clubs for the lack of openness and challenge football’s governing organizations to oppose the culture of secrecy surrounding gay players and to provide a more inclusive environment to support players who want to come out. Keywords: Hegemonic masculinity; inclusive masculinity; homophobia; football; fans Introduction Throughout its contemporary history, sport has often been described as a cultural institution that compelled men to adhere to socially acceptable notions of masculinity (Hargreaves 1994; Messner 1992; Pronger 1990). One particular contact team sport, association football (or soccer), was based on and maintained traditional notions of masculinity during the nineteenth and twentieth century. This required the demonstration of physical strength and power, heterosexuality and hostility towards homosexuals and women (Dunning 1999; Nauright and Chandler 1996). Research in the 1990s suggested that the environment for a gay athlete to declare his or her sexual preferences was intimidating and hostile (Griffin Cashmore and Cleland (Faculty of Health and Psychology, Staffordshire University) (Corresponding author email: j.a.cleland@ staffs.ac.uk) © London School of Economics and Political Science 2012 ISSN 0007-1315 print/1468-4446 online.
    [Show full text]