"Now I Gotta Watch What I Say": Shifting Constructions of Masculinity in Discourse

This article provides a description of how a member of a college fraternity uses particular linguistic devices to display different masculinities. It is argued that masculinity can be understood as a repertoire of authoritative stances that implicate a social hierarchy. Speakers select from this repertoire depending on the speech activity and their interlocutors. Gender identity is a performance that is understood in a complex context that includes not only the immediate speech event, but knowledge of cultural expectations for gender and knowledge of social structures.