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HETEROSEXUAL MASCULINITY IN FINNISH ONLINE DATING ADS
A.M. HolappaEmerging ideas in masculinity research – Masculinity studies in the
North. 4th - 6th June 2014, at the University of Iceland, Reykjavik.
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BACKROUND INFORMATION
Phd student, digital culture, University of Turku
Working title: The heterosexual relationship schema in Finnish online dating ads
LOOKING FOR: shared cultural knowledge concerning romantic male-female relationships in online dating ads in dating services site
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RESEARCH QUESTION TODAY
How Finnish men represent themselves?
What kind of variety of the ideal heterosexual male partner representations could be found in online dating service?
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THE RESEARCH DATA
The research data contained
a)920 semi-structured online dating ad texts, collected in 2012 and
b)600 online dating ad profile pictures collected in January 2014
Both men (60%) and women (40%)
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THE RESEARCH DATA
Data was limited to dating advertisements where heterosexual True Love was sought
->
heterosexuality is a choice made by the company seeker
man looking for a woman
woman looking for a man
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• Are there differences between men and women?
Yes there are. Women use more adjectives to describe their looks, men use exact measures• Are there similarities between men and women?
Yes there are. Amount of adjectives used• Are there differences among men and among women?
Yes there are. Some women seek safety, some equality and some man who is capable of letting the woman take the lead.• Are the similarities or differences masculine or feminine features?
Harder question: what are the definitions of masculine and feminine?
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MASCULINITY
Wikipedia: Masculinity is a set of qualities, characteristics or roles generally considered typical of, or appropriate to, a man.
There exist several masculinities in a culture at the same time.
Nowadays we all agree that masculinity and femininity are culturally specific and historically conditioned.
(Buchbinder 2013)
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STEREOTYPES
Stereotypes are everyday thinking and then hardly useful in academic research, many think.
But they are useful if the research is concentrated in everyman´s own constructions of their own masculinity.
Stereotypes being well known are at least one influence in those constructions.
Usually the masculine features are seen opposite to women´s.
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Stereotypes of (Western) masculinityPhysical strength
Power (successful/wealthy)
Control of emotions
Calm, stable and able to defense him/his community
Excellent heterosexual lover
Independent in every way
Stereotypes of Finnish maleNot (too) emotional (unless drunk)
Having sisu/guts/being brave
Tough/(possible) violent
(Sipilä 1994; Lahti 1994, Jokinen 2000)
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FACT BEHIND STEREOTYPES
Evolutionary perspective: the emphasis is on physical and genetic fitness, because passing on good genetic material is the main goal
Men want women to be young and healthy for reproductive purposes (the looks)
Women are interested in men capable of parental investment (wealth)
David Buss 1994
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RESEARCH : TEXT
Textual data in open text field was broke down in pieces.
Expressions or key words, specially adjectives most repeated were categorized by thematic choices.
If looking the male expressions against the masculine stereotypes: how identical are men´s descriptions with those?
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TEXT RESEARCH RESULTS: EXPRESSIONS
117 different adjectives including minor variations
85 adjectives 90 adjectives
+ 35 descriptions for physical looks
+ 6 different categories for hobbies
+ descriptive expressions for profession, working life, age etc
altogether about 200 expressions
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TOP 5 MALE DESCRIPTIONS OF THEMSELVES
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RESULTS: THE ADJECTIVES
There were some adjectives
1.only referring to men with the word itself being not gendered,
2. adjectives not referring to women but only to men with more traditional tone of masculinity, and
3. adjectives that were never referring to male but only to female.
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NOT GENDERED ADJECTIVES ONLY REFERRING TO MEN
Healthy (terve)
Decent (kunnollinen)
Polite / Well-mannered / Gentleman
(kohtelias, hyväkäytöksinen, herrasmiesmäinen)
Safe (turvallinen)
Charismatic (karismaattinen)
Experienced (kokenut)
Able to commit (sitoutuva)
Soft (pehmo)
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(MASCULINE) ADJECTIVES REFERRING ONLY TO MEN
Wealthy but in the other hand:
you can be anything
it does not matter what you do
I hope working isn´t everything in your life
Muscular / athletic
Handsome
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ADJECTIVES REFERRING ONLY TO FEMALE
Flexible (joustava)
Gentle (lempeä)
Creative (luova)
Perky (pirtsakka)
Modest (vaatimaton)
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NOT GENDERED ADJECTIVES REFERRING TO BOTH FEMALES AND MALES
Young/youngish
Sporty
Social
Open
Like to have conversations
Relaxed / Easy-going
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RESULTS AND A CONCLUSION
There were similarities with common stereotypes: active, muscular and active man was wanted (physical strenght)
Some women wanted wealthy man (power, success, independent)
These gender differences also goes with the evolutionary point of view.
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RESULTS AND A CONCLUSION
Stereotypes NOT found in the research data:
Control of emotions, emotional toughness, calmness BUT the opposite: open, social, talkative
New (unexpected) attention given to downshifting ideology and soft values.
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RESULTS AND A CONCLUSION
Also being excellent heterosexual lover did NOT come up but the reason might be the “romantic context”
When talking about romantic relationship, there is often more emphasis on emotion rather than on physical intimacy and that shows in the vocabulary.
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FROM HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY TO DIVERSITY OF MEN
The cultural values of life are present in online dating ads.
The variety of the ideal heterosexual male partner representations is found in online dating service.
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REFERENCES
Buss, David 1994: The evolution of desire: Strategies of Human Mating.
Buchbinder, David 2013: Studying men and masculinities. London: Routledge
Jokinen, Arto 2000: Panssaroitu maskuliinisuus. Mies, väkivalta ja kulttuuri. Tampere :Tampere
University Press.
Lahti, Martti 1994: Kotia kohti. Vammaisuus ja maskuliinisuus elokuvassa Tapaus Henry. Teoksessa: Miestä rakennetaan, maskuliinisuuksia puretaan. Tampere: Vastapaino, 207-226.
Sipilä, Jorma 1994: Miestutkimus – säröjä hegemonisessa maskuliinisuudessa. In Miestä rakennetaan, maskuliinisuuksia puretaan. Ed. Jorma Sipilä & Arto Tiihonen. Tampere: Vastapaino, p. 17-36.