Masculinities and the Paedophile: Discursive Strategies in Irish Newspapers. Item Type Thesis Authors Galvin, Miriam Rights <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by- nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a <a rel="license" href="http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>. Download date 28/09/2021 21:29:38 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10454/4249 University of Bradford eThesis This thesis is hosted in Bradford Scholars – The University of Bradford Open Access repository. Visit the repository for full metadata or to contact the repository team © University of Bradford. This work is licenced for reuse under a Creative Commons Licence. Masculinities and the Paedophile: Discursive Strategies in Irish Newspapers Representations of the Paedophile in Irish Newspapers 2003-2005 Miriam GALVIN submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Social Sciences and Humanities University of Bradford 2009 ABSTRACT MIRIAM GALVIN Masculinities and the Paedophile: Discursive Strategies in Irish Newspapers Key Words: Paedophile, Ireland, ‘Other’, Critical Discourse Analysis, Newspapers, Masculinities, Hegemonic, Deviant This study examines the ways in which men who relate sexually to children, identified in the press as paedophiles, are represented in four leading newspapers in the Republic of Ireland in the period from 2003-2005. Utilising a qualitative research methodology namely critical discourse analysis, a social constructionist approach and informed by post-structural perspectives, this research examines the ways in which the masculinities of the man represented as ‘the paedophile’ are constructed. This research demonstrates how the normative is reinforced through the delegitimation of the masculinities of these men. The discursive regimes and cultural scenarios drawn upon in representations of ‘the paedophile’ reflect degrees of deviation from hegemonic masculinity in an always already ‘deviant’ group of men. Inactive heterosexuality and homosexuality are not hegemonic masculine practices, and the masculinity of supposedly, celibate clergymen and homosexual men is discursively subordinated. A consideration of the material dimensions of these discourses, illustrates how the media representation of men who relate sexually to children, confirms the normative contours of society and strategically excludes hegemonic masculinity and the wider society from association with adult male sexual interaction with children. ii List of Tables Table 1: National Readership Figures 2003 – 2005 p158 Table 2: Some topics featured in news reports in relation to the paedophile/ p173 paedophilia Table 3: Readership of the newspaper reviewed in this Study p174 Table 4: Themes – men relating sexually to children p176 iii List of Figures Figure 1: Sample Selection: newspapers, newspaper articles p175 Figure 2: Pyramid of Perversion p219 iv List of Tables ______________________________________________________________ iii List of Figures _____________________________________________________________ iv PART A __________________________________________________________________ 1 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION___________________________________________ 2 Background to the Study ........................................................................................................ 2 First Attempts.......................................................................................................................... 4 Methodology ............................................................................................................................ 6 Aims .......................................................................................................................................... 7 This Study ................................................................................................................................ 8 Rationale for this Research .................................................................................................................. 9 Theoretical approaches used in this Research ................................................................................... 11 Structure of Thesis ................................................................................................................ 14 CHAPTER 2: WAYS OF KNOWING, TYPES OF TRUTH ________________________ 24 Enlightenment Thinking ...................................................................................................... 26 The Scientific way of Knowing ............................................................................................ 27 Critiques of traditional dominant epistemologies .............................................................. 29 Ways of Knowing: Sex and Sexuality ................................................................................. 34 Sexology and Essentialism ................................................................................................................ 35 Sex and Sexuality as Constructed ...................................................................................................... 37 Male Sexuality ................................................................................................................................... 40 Discussion .............................................................................................................................. 42 CHAPTER 3: UNDERSTANDING MEN AND MASCULINITIES _________________ 48 Sex and Gender ..................................................................................................................... 49 v Terms and Perspectives ..................................................................................................................... 49 Biology, Genes, Hormones ................................................................................................................ 50 Functionalism and Sex Role Theory ................................................................................................. 52 Sex and Gender as Constructs ........................................................................................................... 54 Constructionism and the postmodern subject .................................................................................... 56 Masculinity/Masculinities ..................................................................................................... 59 Studying Men: Defining and Theorising Masculinities ..................................................................... 59 Male Sex Role ................................................................................................................................... 61 Hegemonic masculinity ..................................................................................................................... 63 Multiple masculinities ....................................................................................................................... 66 Masculinity and normative sexuality ................................................................................................. 69 Discussion .............................................................................................................................. 71 CHAPTER 4: EXPLANATIONS FOR ADULT MALE SEXUAL INTERACTION WITH CHILDREN ______________________________________________________________ 79 The Child and Childhood ..................................................................................................... 80 Men who relate sexually to children .................................................................................... 84 Legal Interpretations ............................................................................................................ 89 Explanations for adult male sexual interaction with children .......................................... 90 (A) Problems in the individual – medical, psychological explanations ............................................. 90 Classification and Diagnosis ......................................................................................................... 92 (B) Problems in society - Sociological/Feminist Explanations ......................................................... 98 (C) Pro-paedophile/ sexual freedom ................................................................................................ 101 Discussion ............................................................................................................................ 108 PART B ________________________________________________________________ 117 The Term Discourse ............................................................................................................ 119 Text and Context ................................................................................................................. 120 vi Discourse Analysis as a methodology ................................................................................ 122 Some varieties of Discourse Analysis: ............................................................................... 122 Content Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 123 Conversation Analysis ....................................................................................................................