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Part of
Discourse Studies in Public Communication
Edited by Eliecer Crespo-Fernández
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 92] 2021
► pp. 151–176

Chapter 7
It all comes down to sex

Metaphorical animalisation in reggaeton discourse

| The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina , USA

This chapter investigates how sex functions as the main conductive thread in reggaeton musical discourse. By doing so, it explores how metaphorical animalisation frames the male perception of women. Following the Lakoffian conceptual basis that people are animals, it shows how genders are perceived as predators and prey and, subsequently, how this metaphorical animalisation conveys relations of power and control such as domesticity, taming, submission, and servility. The analysis reveals that whereas both are deliberately animalised, female animalisation operates at the service of men. In this regard, women animalisation is intrinsically related to being sexually objectified, dehumanised, and even physically abused, with certain tints of sadomasochism. The corpus analyses one hundred eighteen songs of twenty-five male reggaeton singers. The analysis unveils that sexual desire, pleasure, behaviour, and performance is intentionally animal-rooted.

Keywords: musical discourse, metaphor, animalisation, reggaeton, sex, gender
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Metaphorical animalisation
  • 3.Methodology
  • 4.Analysis
    • 4.1Women as animals
    • 4.2Men as animals
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 7 April 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.92.07gar
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