ABSTRACT
Media texts are considered to be central sites where discursive constructions of, and negotiation over, gender and sexuality take place. This chapter provides an overview of research in this area which focuses on how language is used in various media ‘texts’ to construct certain kinds of men and/or women. I look at some examples of empirical studies which have focused on different types of media texts using methods from F/CDA in order to uncover and problematise gender and sexuality ideologies in media texts. Additionally, I incorporate discussion of some studies which have made use of other analytical frameworks such as corpus linguistics and linguistic landscapes. The types of media texts that are examined in this chapter include: newspaper articles (from the British tabloid press); print and online personal advertisements; lifestyle magazines; image banks; websites; posters and merchandise. This, of course, is by no means an exhaustive list of the types of media texts that can be examined in language, gender and sexuality research – and the studies discussed in the chapter are selected simply to give a ‘flavour’ of the range of work in the field and to inspire readers to think about what kinds of work they could do in their own projects.
