Media construction of Korean transnational sporting masculinities

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Yeomi Choi (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Katherine Jamieson

Abstract: This study examined discursively produced transnational masculinities through mediated Korean-born sport celebrities playing in the major league baseball. Considering that studies of men and masculinity are more likely to offer richer, more in-depth analyses when they recognize the intersections of class, race, gender, sexuality, and nationality, this research explored diverse and plural conflations of contemporary masculinities in transnational contexts. In the process, I took into account a variety of theoretical approaches including post-colonial feminist theory, queer theory, critical race theory, new manism theory, and hegemonic theory in order to find a more appropriate theoretical framework for the analysis of transnational subjectivities. Linking theoretical frames with feminist critical discourse analysis and Fairclough's three dimensions of critical discourse analysis, I investigated multiple media sport texts including online newspapers and reader comments in US and South Korean contexts. Based on a total number of 108 media texts in online newspapers, six distinguishing thematic discourses were analyzed: athletic masculinities, heterosexual patriarchal masculinities, militarized masculinities, trans/nationalist masculinities, Korean Confucian masculinities, and color solidarity. Through analyzing a total number of 83 media texts in reader comments, also, four dominant discourse categories were identified: othering masculinities, regulating bodies, commodified transnational masculinities, and multifaceted androcentric nationalism. The results illustrate that diversely conflated transnational relationships and the intersectional factors including race, class, gender, sexuality, and nationality have an influence on shaping the hybridity of Korean sporting masculinities. Resisting a dominant dichotomous perception that the western males and masculinities are standardized as a norm but Asian/Korean males and masculinities are merely effeminate, the results of this study effectively illuminate newly racialized transnational subjects and the masculinities under the power of new imperialism.

Additional Information

Publication
Dissertation
Language: English
Date: 2015
Keywords
Intersectionality, Korean/Asian athletes, Media construction, Multiple masculinities, Postcolonial feminist theory, Transnationalism
Subjects
Male athletes $z Korea (South)
Masculinity in sports
Men $x Identity
Sports $x Social aspects
Sports $x Psychological aspects

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