Men Talk

Jennifer Coates is Professor of English Language and Linguistics at the University of Surrey Roehampton. She is author of Women Talk (Blackwell, 1996) and editor of Language and Gender: A Reader (Blackwell, 1997).

‘Though many blandly assert that gender is socially constructed, few really understand how. In this insightful work, Jennifer Coates takes us inside, deep inside, the construction of masculinities and enables us to watch them in the process of their construction, as men use language to create gendered meanings and hierarchies, and are, in turn, made by those very meanings.’ Michael Kimmel, SUNY at Stony Brook and author of The Gendered Society ‘Men Talk is the first in-depth study of all-male conversations. Coates’s book takes a fresh look at the way in which men's use of language helps to maintain, and sometimes challenge, traditional gender boundaries.’ Sally Johnson, Lancaster University "Very readable, grounded in data, with the chapters very logically and clearly linked, providing a degree of overall coherence that is often missing in books of this kind...[the book contains a] wealth of detail and careful empirical analysis." Discourse and Society

• 1. 'We was Playing Naked Football the Other Night': Introduction. 2. 'Good Story!': The Formal Characteristics of Male Narrative.3. 'So I Thought ‘Bollocks to it': Men, Stories and Masculinities.4. 'Bad as My Mate': Stories in Sequence.5. 'She'd Made Sardines in Aspic': Women's Stories, Men's Stories and the Construction of Gender.6. 'I'm Quite Good at Mexican Food': Men's Narratives in Mixed Conversation.7. 'Still in Shock Weren't You Darling': Masculinity and the Heterosexual Couple.8. 'There are Problems': Men's Talk and Contemporary Masculinities.Index.