The performance of masculine identities in a mediated world: young men’s commentary on male celebrities

Abstract

ABSTRACT Media plays an important role in how young men come to understand what it means to ‘be a man.’ For adolescent men, representations in the media of high-profile male figures are a constant and pervasive stream of performances of masculinities and, as such, can be considered a resource for gender identity work. As part of a longitudinal study of masculinities in the transition to adulthood, photo-elicitation interviews were undertaken with 16 young men. The young men’s commentary on representations of known male celebrities served as a lens to explore how they connected discursive understandings and identity resources to what they were viewing. As participants interpreted identities of media figures they simultaneously, and relatedly, negotiated gender identities for themselves. Our analysis applied the concept of performativity to consider how the participants were both evaluating the performative production of celebrity men in the media and engaging in the performative production of their own identities, including their masculinities. This analysis yielded three conceptual themes: mediated identity, the balanced man and the management of reputation. These findings challenge representations of young men as heedless, prone to risk, and easily influenced by media images of masculinity. Rather, they are negotiating social identities in a mediated world.