Sexism, "discourse about gender" and "negotiated masculinity"

More 'useful' academic research revealed in the Herald today. Story here. Waikato University School of Education sociologist Toni Bruce has been conducting research on (in her words) "the intersection of sport and the media - analysing both the content of the media and how media workers (sports writers, TV commentators) understand their roles."

Recent research by Bruce includes papers on 'Modern and Postmodern Discourses in Media Coverage of the Commonwealth Games,' 'Indigenous Logic in the AFL,' a barrel of laughs by all accounts, and 'Interrogating the Intersections of Nationalism and Gender in Media Coverage of International Sports Spectacles' -- the last was reported to be walking off the shelves in the Waikato University Sociology Library.

Her latest research topic? Marc Ellis and the TV show Sportscafe.

Overall, our analysis revealed that Sportscafe constructed a discourse about gender that privileged new lad masculinity and reinforced the marginalisation of women, while masking its messages in boyish humour.

Wow. You can sure see why she gets the big bread. She also noted that "sexualisation" was a prevalent theme on Sportscafe, with "regular sexual innuendo and sarcastic references to sexual prowess (or lack thereof)," and recorded her male students who played soccer saying they had to "negotiate their sense of masculinity because they were not taken seriously because they choose not to play rugby." Poor lambs.

Do you think it just possible that New Zealand might have too many sociologists chasing too few valid research topics?

To the right is a photograph of a young woman.

LINKS: New lads, or old sexists? - NZ Herald

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