Summary Of Western Masculinity By Deborah Tannen

Deborah Tannen’s article regarding the performance of gender identity outlines how male herosexuality is presented via the manner in which men talk to each other. Western masculinity is characterized as being associated with strength, aggression, dominance, and sexual prowess, among other traits (McGarry 2017, Sully 2012). Heterosexuality, the attraction to the opposite gender, comes into play with traditional views of masculinity as the two are often tied together, to the point in which they are interchangeable; to be a man is to be heterosexual, and by deflecting from the traditional view of either, one is inherently not the other (McGarry 2017).
For example, the men perform male heterosexuality when they deliberately begin to mock homosexual classmates by calling them “fruits”, “homos”, “queer” and “butt pirates” (Tannen 2017: 93) as derogatory terms. Their ridicule towards their peers distances themselves from a group who are the exact opposite of heterosexuality, and by extensions, of masculinity. Thus, they are establishing that they conform to the societal expectations of masculinity interwoven with heterosexuality. They also proceeded to call a group of men who are “hitting on” a woman they deem as unattractive as “four homos” (Tannen 2017: 93). Thus, Tannen begins to bring forth the
concept that male heterosexuality is intertwined with masculinity, and is a form of gender conformity (Tannen 2017: 93), wherein the men are criticizing their peers for pursuing a woman who is not up to the standards that they hold (Tannen 2017: