Homosocial desire in men's talk: Balancing and re-creating cultural discourses of masculinity

This article is an exploration of how a group of men in the United States create homosocial (as opposed to homosexual) desire through language. In a society in which dominant discourses of masculinity provide competing scripts of male solidarity and heterosexuality, the achievement of closeness among men is not straightforward but must be negotiated through “indirect” means. It is shown how men actively negotiate dominant cultural discourses in their everyday interactions. In addition, a broadened view of indirectness, based on social function as much as denotation, is argued for.This article was initially presented in much shorter and different form at the Second International Gender and Language Association (IGALA) Conference in Lancaster, U.K., in April 2002. I would like to thank the audience there, and in particular Jennifer Coates, for their comments and lively discussion. I would also like to thank Deborah Tannen for her insightful comments and advice, and two anonymous reviewers whose comments strengthened the article considerably. I would also like to thank the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago for inviting me to have conversation about this work in their semiotics workshop, and specifically Lauren Keeler, Jonathan Rosa, and Michael Silverstein. Ultimately, responsibility for the article's contents remains with the author.