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Article published In:
Pragmatics and Society
Vol. 14:6 (2023) ► pp.844–868

Self-help and masculinity

Speech acts in an online men’s group

ORCID logo | Birmingham City University

This study investigates the interactional norms of a manosphere discussion forum known as The Red Pill (TRP), and asks whether it can be conceptualised as a self-help group. 2104 posts and comments from regular users and high-status users in the community were analysed qualitatively to determine how the community is characterised by certain speech acts, and how these speech acts correspond to face-enhancement and face-threat as well as to certain impression management strategies.

Since personal disclosure, advice-giving, and face-enhancement are key characteristics of TRP, it could be argued that TRP shares some functional characteristics with self-help communities. However, much of the advice given is unsolicited, a disproportionately high rate of face-enhancement is directed towards high-status users, and speech acts such as elaborating, and some advice-giving and personal disclosure seem to be used for self-promotion purposes. Furthermore, the prevalence of unhedged face-threats sets TRP apart from traditional supportive communities.

Keywords: impression management, manosphere, masculinity, relational work, self-help, speech acts
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Men, self-help, and self-disclosure
    • 2.1TRP
  • 3.Data selection, collection and preparation
  • 4.Methodology
  • 5.Results and discussion
    • 5.1Face-enhancing and face-threatening speech acts
    • 5.2Other speech acts
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 11 April 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.21075.kre
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