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Abstract
By analysing 200 posts on a Japanese gay dating Bulletin Board System (deai-kei BBS), I investigate how users strategically deploy language to construct desirable identities and “sell themselves” online. Drawing upon both quantitative and qualitative analysis, I demonstrate that users of the BBS creatively manipulate stereotypical identity categories known as Types (taipu) to construct highly nuanced yet specific discourses of the Self and the desired Other. Through a discursive analysis of the strategies users employ to construct their own identities, and the identities of their desired partners, I argue that identity categories marked as masculine and hunky (sawayaka) are privileged as more desirable than feminine and cute (kawaii) identities. Through this analysis, I suggest that users of this particular forum appear to valorise heteronormative masculinity, which they link to being hunky. Furthermore, I argue that being cute is considered undesirable due to its perception as transgressing normative masculine gendered traits.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 232-261 |
Number of pages | 30 |
Journal | Journal of Language and Sexuality |
Volume | 6 |
Issue number | 2 |
Early online date | 22 Sept 2017 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2017 |
Keywords
- Japan
- identity
- desire
- gay dating sites
- heteronormativity
- masculinity
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