1

BODIES THAT MATTER?: MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF JUNIOR

MAGAZINES FRONT COVER1
Fbio Santiago Nascimento2
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
ABSTRACT: Homoerotic male magazines are complex semiotic systems composed by
different genres that convey subjectivity models or masculinities. Among the genres
presented in magazines, the magazine front cover is relevant for attracting readers and also, at
the same time, anticipating the magazines content (MCLOUGHIN, 2000). The objective of
this paper is to present a preliminary analysis of the multimodal discourse of homoerotic male
magazines front covers in order to identify discourses concerning body and health conveyed
in these magazines. One front cover from Junior magazine will be analyzed as a
metafunctional construct in the light of the theoretical frameworks of Systemic Functional
Linguistics (HALLIDAY, 1989) and Social Semiotics (HODGE; KRESS, 1988). Next, I will
attempt to interpret results in terms of the magazines context of publication as a way to reveal
forms of knowledge and belief and identities and social relationships (FAIRCLOUGH, 1995)
constituted in/by multimodal discourse. A first look at the selected front cover seems to
indicate that the model depicted is the embodiment of a series of attributes/meanings realized
by verbal language. These attributes are mainly associated with beauty, youth and search for
(sexual) pleasure. In addition, there seems to be an attempt to naturalize such values by
emulating a conversational style in verbal language.
KEYWORDS: Multimodality. Critical Discourse Analysis. Front cover. Junior magazine
RESUMO: Revistas homoerticas masculinas so sistemas semiticos complexos compostos
por diferentes gneros que veiculam modelos de subjetividade ou masculinidades. Dentre
os gneros discursivos presentes nas revistas, a capa da revista possui o papel relevante de
atrair o leitor, ao mesmo tempo em que antecipa o contedo da revista (MCLOUGHLIN,
2000). O objetivo deste trabalho analisar o discurso multimodal de capas (front covers) de
revistas homoerticas masculinas, de modo a identificar os discursos sobre corpo e sade
veiculados nessas revistas. Uma capa da revista Junior ser analisada sob as perspectivas
tericas da Lingustica Sistmico-Funcional (HALLIDAY, 1989) e da Semitica Social
(HODGE; KRESS, 1988). Em seguida, tentarei interpretar os resultados da anlise em funo
do contexto de publicao, numa tentativa de desvelar as formas de conhecimento e crena,
identidades e relaes sociais (FAIRCLOUGH, 1995) constitudas no/pelo discurso
multimodal. Uma primeira visada parece indicar que o modelo retratado na capa da revista
incorpora uma srie de atributos/significados construdos pela linguagem verbal. Esses
atributos esto principalmente associados a valores como beleza, juventude e busca de prazer
1

This paper is a result of the theoretical and analytical discussions carried out in two courses which I enrolled in
during the second term of 2011. The first course, Gender in Language and Literature Studies, was lectured by
Prof. Susana Borno Funck and Prof. Dbora de Carvalho Figueiredo. The second one, Discourse Analysis, was
lectured by Prof. Viviane Maria Heberle. I am very thankful to them for their valuable reading suggestions and
support given along the courses.
2
PhD candidate at the Graduate Program in English (Linguistics) under the supervision of Prof. Dbora de
Carvalho Figueiredo. Member of the Reading and Writing Teaching Research Lab (LABLER) at Universidade
Federal de Santa Maria-RS and the Nucleus of Discourse Practices (NUPDISCURSO) at Universidade Federal
de Santa Catarina-SC. Grantee of the Brazilian National Council of Development and Research (CNPq)
process no 143262/2011-4. Email: fabiosantiagonasc@gmail.com

(sexual). Alm disso, parece haver uma tentativa de naturalizao desses valores por meio da
simulao de um tom de conversa informal na linguagem verbal.
PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Multimodalidade. Anlise Crtica do Discurso. Capa. Revista Junior

1. INTRODUCTION
Since the publication of gay male magazines in the 1980s 3, images and representations
of gay males have been widely spread throughout mainstream society. There is no doubt that
such publications have contributed to the important struggle of gay activist groups for
achieving more acceptance and equality within society. Male gay-oriented magazines are part
of the media and give a voice to these groups, allowing them to communicate their ideas, to
express their opinions and even to claim for social changes in controversial gay-related issues.
Despite the social significance of gay magazines as sites of information and visibility
for gay communities, representations of gay males conveyed by the media seem to become
increasingly repetitive or even stereotyped. In general, as Lima (2001) suggests, in his
analysis of the extinct Brazilian gay magazine Sui Generis, the standard image is that of a
well-fit, muscular, stylish, high earning, sexy macho that both represents a particular way of
being but, at the same, may be part of a hegemonic model of masculinity for male
homosexuals.
Other studies have also pointed to the lack of diversity in media representations of
homosexuals in different genres (MOITA-LOPES, 2006; COLLING, 2007; ESHREF, 2009;
PEREIRA, 2006; KUHAR, 2006) however, few of these studies have adopted a text oriented
perspective on discourse analysis (FAIRCLOUGH, 1992), especially those studies which
have investigated Brazilian male gay-oriented publications.
In order to carry out a preliminary critical discourse analysis of male homoerotic
magazines4, this paper aims to analyze the multimodal discourse of one magazine front cover.
Considering that magazines are complex semiotic systems (HEBERLE, 2004) composed by
different texts instantiating different genres (news, feature articles, readers letter, etc.), the
3

Gay Times, an entertainment mainstream gay magazine, was first published in The United Kingdom in 1984
and can be considered the first one of this genre. However, other gay magazines, more restricted in circulation
and with a different focus on political issues were published earlier, such as Panbladet, a Danish gay magazine
which had its first edition in 1954 and is part of the National Association of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and
Transgenders (LGBT) of Denmark, founded in 1948. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_Danmark
4
Research proposal Muscles that matter: body and identity construction in male gay magazines submitted to the
Graduate Program in English (Linguistics) at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, as a preliminary version
of my future PhD project.

front cover functions as an advertisement of the magazine and previews its content in an
attempt to persuade readers to buy one magazine rather than another (MCLOUGHIN, 2000, p.
5).
The present chapter consists of five sections besides the introduction. In the next
section (2), I will discuss different concepts (gender, body, sexuality) in order to delimitate the
theoretical scope which grounds my interpretation of preliminary results from the multimodal
analysis. Section 3 presents the theoretical framework adopted for the linguistic/semiotic
analysis of magazines front covers. Section 4 describes some methodological aspects
(analytical categories and criteria for text selection) of the study. Section 5 presents the
multimodal discourse analysis of male gay magazines front covers. In the last section (6),
some relevant aspects of the study will be addressed and future research directions will be
pointed out.

2. BEYOND GENDER: BODY AND SEXUALITY

Traditionally, gender is a grammatical term used to distinguish between participants
(persons, animals, etc.) male and female biological sexes. However, in her seminal paper,
Joan Scott argued that gender is no longer a linguistic category, but a historical one, since
words codify meanings which are socially attributed and therefore they have a history (1986,
p. 1053). In her theorization, the author rejected the notion that gender is a matter of fixed
binary oppositions between male and female and assumed that gender is a constitutive
element of social relationships based on perceived differences between the sexes, and [gender
is] a primary way of signifying relationships of power (1986, p. 1067) 5. In this sense, gender
relationships are socially enacted between sexed bodies (male or female) by deployment of
symbols, grand narratives and normative concepts devised by social institutions; and reflect
the psychological development of subjective identity (1986, p. 1067-1068).
In contrast to Scotts theorization on gender, poststructuralist accounts have criticized
the distinction between gender as a cultural construction and sex as a fixed biological
apparatus, arguing that not only gender is performatively produced within cultural practices
(BUTLER, 1990, p. 24) but also sex:

My emphasis.

Gender ought not to be conceived merely as the cultural inscription of meaning on a

pregiven sex (a juridical conception); gender must also designate the very apparatus
of production whereby the sexes themselves are established. As a result, gender is
not to culture as sex is to nature; gender is also the discursive/cultural means by
which sexed nature or a natural sex is produced and established as
prediscursive, prior to culture, a political neutral surface on which culture acts.
(1990, p. 7)

In other words, the categories of sex and gender function in very similar ways since
both are unstable and are continually (re)constructed through social interactions. It is by
means of cultural processes that people define what is (or what is not) natural in terms of their
sexualities and intimate relationships. Of course, the social construction of gender and
sexuality has implications for the body:
The body posited as prior to the sign, is always posited or signified as prior. This
signification produces as an effect of its own procedure the very body that it
nevertheless and simultaneously claims to discover as that which precedes its own
action. If the body signified as prior to signification is an effect of signification, then
the mimetic or representational status of language, which claims that signs follow
bodies as their necessary mirrors, is not mimetic at all. On the contrary, it is
productive, constitutive, one might even argue performative, inasmuch as the
signifying act delimits and contours the body that it then claims to find prior to any
and all signification. (BUTLER, 1993, p. 30)

In this sense, bodies have come to existence and are shaped, delineated and controlled
through discursive means which are inscribed into a heteronormative order. The body, thus, is
a site of struggle and also the materialization of discourses (legal, medical, juridical, etc.) that
legitimate certain possibilities of owing certain bodies and experiencing certain forms of
sexuality6.
If bodies are (partly) constructed and maintained through discourse, the ideal images
of bodies in the male homoerotic magazines front cover (and also those which are part of the
magazine inside content) should be investigated as commercialized symbolic

goods

produced within the discursive machinery of a specific context of publication in order to

legitimate certain lifestyles in detriment of others. Language (as discourse), thus, is a social
practice that shapes knowledge systems and beliefs and identities and social relationships
(FAIRCLOUGH, 1995), which, in their turn, regulate social interactions, as will be discussed
in the next section.
3 DISCOURSE: LANGUAGE AS SOCIAL PRACTICE
6

The main title of the article carries this ambiguous sense of the word matter: it refers both to the acts of
reiteration through discursive practices which matters bodies and, at the same time, the bodies that matter in
contemporary society, in other words, the bodies who are successfully inscribed into a heteronormative order and
therefore become hegemonic.

In the present study, I adopt a critically engaged perspective on discourse analysis, as

the one developed by critical discourse analysts such as Norman Fairclough, Ruth Wodak and
Teun van Djik, in an attempt of moving beyond the analysis of language in use. Especially in
the 1970s and early 1980s, research on language focused on the detailed descriptions of
grammar and utterances at the level of sentence with no reference to the ways language is
used to make meaning in society (JAWORSKI; COUPLAND, 1999, p. 3-4). In contrast,
contemporary studies (in a movement towards contextualization of discourse) have focused
on the relationship between language and social structures (BHATIA, 2004).
In other words, analyzing discourse has become a matter of describing how a language
functions on the context because language is conceived as a semiotic system for the
construction of possible realities, shaping identities and mediating social relations among
individuals. On the other hand, language is also a mirror of social structures, being constituted
by the very social processes which it is a part of.
Discourse, thus, can be defined as the set of semiotic elements (e.g. words, images,
sounds, etc.) which are moments of the social practices for language is usually an essential
element of mediation between individuals who take part in human interactions
(CHOULIARAKI; FAIRCLOUGH, 1999, p. 38). However, besides making communication
possible, language also allows people to act together and construe partial representations of
reality (CHOULIARAKI; FAIRCLOUGH, 1999, p. 37).
For instance, the text is molded by the event or social practice which it mediates and,
at the same time, the discursive practice (realized by the text) reflects or reproduces a social
practice. The text is the linguistic/semiotic materialization of a social event (genre)
(FAIRCLOUGH, 2003, p. 24), in other words, it is any instance of language (written, spoken,
visual, etc.) which performs a role in a context. The text is a unit of meaning, a particular
combination of signifiers and signifieds which is socially motivated (KRESS, 1987, p. 18).
This unit is composed by different levels of complexity, such as vocabulary (lexicon),
grammar (word phrases), sentences (cohesion) and text structure (FAIRCLOUGH, 1992, p.
75). A text, thus, is a process of choices in the linguistic/semiotic system and, at the same
time, a product of a discursive practice for it reflects ways of acting (discourse, genres and
styles) associated to a given discourse order.
The level of discursive practice, in its turn, refers to the processes of production,
consumption and distribution of texts in society. The nature of these processes is social and
each discourse is produced in specific economic, political and institutional contexts

(FAIRCLOUGH, 1992, p. 71). The production and consumption of texts involve the
exploration of discursive conventions associated to an order of discourse and the
interpretation of texts based on background knowledge shared by a given social group.
If the discursive practice involves the selection of semiotic choices for expressing
meanings, at a broader level, the social practice, which is mediated by texts, constitutes a
condition for the realization of the discursive practice and, at the same time, a result from this
practice. For example, magazine producers make choices in terms of language style,
compositional and visual designs, font colors, etc. in order to convey representations about
aspects of the world (ways of being) and social relationships (ways of interacting), but these
choices are not unlimited or free for all, they are constrained by the very nature of the social
practice (in terms of values and beliefs shared by the community of magazine producers).
In practical terms, Fairclough (1989, p. 2) assumes that ACD has two interconnected
objectives: (1) to point out the significant role of language in the production, maintenance and
change of unequal power relationships in society and (2) to make people aware of this
constitutive role of language, as way to promote social emancipation. For these reasons,
magazine readers should be empowered with linguistic/semiotic skills (in terms of a
multiliteracy7) in order to adopt a submissive reading role (by accepting as natural and
common-sense the representations conveyed in the magazines) or an active one (by critically
evaluating those representations) (WALLACE, 2003, p. 3).

4 METODOLOGY
The present study focuses on the investigation of one male gay-oriented Brazilian
publication8, Junior magazine. The publication was selected according to the following
criteria:

Highest circulation number

Monthly publication

Print media

Objective entertainment

Publication period (2010-2012)

See COPE, B; KALANTZIS, M. (Eds.). Multiliteracies: literacy learning and the design of social futures.
London: Routledge, 2000.
8
Other magazines to be included in the research project are Gay Times (U.K.) and Out (U.S.).

One magazine cover published on September, 2011 was selected for the following
analysis:

Image 1 Junior magazines front cover September, 2011

The selected cover was analyzed in terms of the choices of meaning in grammar
described both in Hallidays Systemic Functional Grammar (1994, 2004) and Kress and van
Leeuwens Visual Grammar (1996, 2006). These choices are organized in terms of three
dimensions of meaning (HALLIDAY, 1989) that constitute both verbal language and images:

Ideational (or representational) meanings How language is used to represent aspects

of the inner or physical worlds? (e.g. types of transitivity processes associated to
participants material, mental, existential, etc. - and types of processes realized
through visuals narrative or conceptual? classificational, analytical or symbolic?).

Interpersonal (or interactional) How language is used to enact relationships between

participants and readers/viewers? (e.g. degrees of modality in language use of
modals, modal adverbs, etc. and markers of modality in visuals such as color,

illumination and mood types (declarative, interrogative and imperative) and

participants gaze and social distance in visuals).

Textual (or compositional) How the text is organized as a coherent and cohesive
unit? (e.g. which information is given-new, ideal-real?).

5 MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

This section presents the multimodal analysis of one front cover from Junior magazine
and it is organized in four minor sections. The first section presents information about the
magazine and its context of production. The later three subsections explore the tree
dimensions of the meaning-making process in the magazine (representations, identities and
social relationships and meaning in composition).
5.1 Junior magazine
Junior is a printed monthly magazine which was released in 2007 in Brazil and is also
distributed in Portugal. On the September 2011 edition, the magazine launched a new project
that includes more pages than earlier editions (around 180 pages) and a new layout (change in
font types), according to suggestions from readers. The magazine consists of nineteen sections
that explore different themes such as tourism, well-being, politics, culture, in different genres
such as interview, magazine article (Dossi) and readers letter (Cartas).
The magazine belongs to the publishing group responsible for the online gay portal
Mix Brasil which aims to become a leader among the communication vehicles for the gay
community and a reference in information and cultural activities of GLS interest 9. The core
mission of the group is to widen the concept of identity, to create a market and to form up
professionals for the spread of culture and production of entertainment on a gay point of
view10 and it lists several values/purposes which guide its publication politics: ethics,
courage, pioneerism, pro-activity, support for LGBT community, commitment, integrity,
personal valuing, originality, glamour and beauty (inner and mainly outer) 11.
In the next subsections, I analyze one magazine cover from Junior in order to build
some preliminary research hypotheses concerning the construction of representations, social
9

Availabe at http://mixbrasil.uol.com.br/institucional/quem-somos. Retrieved on October, 20th, 2011.

Idem.
11
Idem.
10

roles and relationships and layout design through semiotic choices in the magazine cover.
Therefore, the present analysis is partial (because it focuses on one part of the magazine, its
front cover) and does not present quantitative data, not allowing making generalizations about
the socio-discursive practices presented in the magazine.

5.2 Representations: designing models of being

In the magazine cover of Junior, representational meanings are realized through the
combination of the magazine title, a series of small verbal texts and the image of a male
model.
The magazine title, as pointed out by Mcloughin, is a shorthand way of conjuring up
particular associations in the readers mind (2000, p. 6). The word choice Junior, as
magazine title, is associated to the idea of youth as a positive attribute, in contrast to
professional contexts in which it is usually used to refer to someone who has a job at a low
level within an organization12. The meaning conveyed by the magazine title is reinforced by
the image of a young male model (Erasmo Vianna) who just stands and does not perform any
movement or physical action. The image therefore belongs to the general category of
Conceptual Processes for its emphasis on the representation of a general state of affairs and
the depiction of a way of being in the world (KRESS; VAN LEEUWEN, 1996, p. 114).
As a conceptual representation, the identity of the represented participant (carrier) is
constructed in terms of: (1) his possessive attributes (black paillette trunk, tattoos and even his
well-built chest and abs) which are part of an unstructured Analytical Process (parts forming
up the whole) (KRESS; VAN LEEUWEN, 1996, p. 89) and; (2) the atmosphere the
participant is inserted into (probably a nightclub or a disco environment because of the
different colors that light his body) which can be interpreted as a attribute that realizes a
Symbolic Suggestive Process (KRESS; VAN LEEUWEN, 1996, p. 111).
All these attributes in the image have an ideological significance because they
construct an idealization of what is to be a (gay) man? mainly in a Western culture. The male
model depicted in the magazine cover seems to represent the prototype of an ordinary young
sexy man (between 20 and 35 years old) who is concerned with his personal appearance and

12

Available at http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/junior_1?q=junior. Retrieved on November, 1st,

2011.

10

likes flirting, dating and having fun at nightclubs (or perhaps sexual adventures in love
motels).
The meanings conveyed by the image are reinforced by some lexical choices presented
in the small verbal texts (headlines) surrounding it:
Erasmo Viana
Carrier

(est)
Circumstantial Attributive
Process

em uma noite ensadecida.13

Attribute
(Circumstance)

Figure 114

In Figure 1, there is a Circumstantial Attributive Process est (is) which is elliptical

and is establishing a relation between an entity (Erasmo Vianna) and the attribute he holds.
The attribute, in this case, is circumstantial and it is formed mainly by the combination of the
noun noite (night) and the qualifier ensadecida (crazy). Especially the word choice
ensadecida warns the reader that the night experienced by Erasmo Vianna is not an ordinary
life, but it is somewhat transgressive and exciting.
Other lexical features indicate that this sense of transgression and excitement is related
to sex in terms of sexual fantasies and taboo sexual practices:
Example 1 Friozinho em Ushuaia ou ferveo em Recife?15
Example 2 Dossi: homens fardados16

Reprteres gays
Actor

penetram
Material Process:
Transformative: Motion:
Place

nas casas de swing HT.17

Circusmtance: Place:
Location

Figure 2

(Eu)

tenho

teso

Carrier

Possessive Attributive
Process

Attribute

13

por um corpo lindo,

habitado por uma alma perversa.18
Circumstance: enhancing: cause

One crazy night. (All Portuguese-English translations in this chapter are under my responsibility).
The reason for identifying some clauses as Figure in the legend (instead of Chart) is due to the use of this
term in Systemic Functional Grammar (HALLIDAY, 2004, p. 169-170) to define a clause experientially,
consisting of a process [which unfolds through time], participants involved in it and any attendant
circumstances.
15
Little cold in Ushuaia or hot action in Recife?
16
Dossier: Men in uniform.
17
Gay reporters penetrate into HT swing houses.
18
I have a hard on for a beautiful body, inhabited by a perverse soul.
14

11

Figure 3

In Figure 2, the material process penetram (penetrate) is ambiguous because it refers

to enter into some place, but, at same time, evokes the action performed during sexual
intercourse. Example 5 presents a Possessive Relational Process (tenho - have) with an
elliptical carrier (eu - I) and an attribute (teso a hard on) followed by a circumstance
with two noun phrases (corpo lindo- beautiful body e alma perversa perverse soul) that
emphasize not only unconventional sexual behavior, but also the hegemony of beauty:
Example 3 10 modelos lindos19
Example 4 musos das picapes20
Example 5 DJs bons de ver e ouvir
Perca

a pana

Material Process

Goal

sem esforo, nem

cirurgia.21
Circumstance:
manner: means

Figure 4

9 produtos
Goal

dar jeito
na sua pele.22
Material process: transformative
Goal
Circumstance: Cause: Purpose (Embedded Clause)

pra

Figure 5

Figure 4 presents an Imperative Mood type sentence in which the reader is strongly
demanded to lose some weight and get in shape in a very pejorative way (paunch). Figure
5 also keeps the same tone in the message with the chosen material process (pra dar jeito
to fix) used for pointing out nine possibilities of skin treatment.
The semiotic choices used for constructing ideational meanings in the magazine cover
suggest that sexuality, body design, youth and beauty are prerogatives of a gay narrative of
self-identity. The body is represented as a source of pleasure that should be designed and
fixed in order to meet some standard beauty criteria conveyed by the magazine. Therefore
readers are supposed to inscribe themselves into regimes or routines which may include skin
treatment, series of exercises at the gym, health eating habits and so on (GIDDENS, 1991, p.
19

10 beautiful models.
Pick-up trucks gods.
21
Lose your paunch without any effort or surgery.
22
9 products to fix your skin.
20

12

61-62). Shaping the body, thus, seems to be an important aspect for the maintenance of
hegemonic masculinities and may improve the performance of an individual in social
interactions (CASTRO, 2003, p. 26).

5.3 Social relationships: designing ways of (inter)acting

Besides conveying representations about aspects of the world, the magazine cover of
Junior also present some semiotic features which constitute a kind of interaction between text
producers and readers (interactive meanings) and the levels of reliability the attribute to their
messages (modality). In visuals, interactive meanings are described in terms of three major
categories: Contact, Social Distance and Attitude.
Contact refers to the way a represented participant addresses the viewer and, in the
selected front cover (Image 1), the interaction is constructed by the models gaze, by looking
at the viewer in order to demand an action from him. In a way, Erasmo Vianna seduces the
viewer to join him in his journey across one crazy night as potential sexual partner. At the
same time, in conceptual terms, the model can be seen as the ideal image of man that the
reader wants himself to become as already discussed in the previous section.
Social Distance refers to the level of proximity between the represented participant
and the viewer as a way to signal a greater or lesser level of intimacy or formality (KRESS;
VAN LEEUWEN, 2006, p. 124). Image 1 is an example of medium long shot that establishes
a far social distance between the model and the viewer. The model is depicted from the waist
down in order to allow the viewer to check out his bodily attributes. Therefore, the model is
represented as a stranger to viewers (in fact, Erasmo Vianna cannot be considered a wellknow public figure in the media, but only a new male model with a promising career in the
fashion business), as any ordinary guy one may encounter at gay nightclubs and have a
hook up.
Attitude refers to the choice of perspective (angle) as a possibility of expressing
subjective attitudes towards represented participants (KRESS; VAN LEEUWEN, 2006, p.
129). In a horizontal axis, the participant in Image 1 is depicted from a frontal angle, in a
parallel position with the viewer, and this choice of angle expresses a relationship of
involvement between the model and viewers. In other words, this choice of angle says
What you see here is part of our world, something we are involved with (KRESS; VAN

13

LEEUWEN, 2006, p. 136). In the case of gay magazines, a possible message conveyed by
this choice is What you see here is something that we both want.
On the other hand, the height of an angle, in a vertical axis, also expresses subjective
attitudes in terms of the kind of power relationship established between represented
participants and viewers (KRESS; VAN LEEUWEN, 2006, p. 140). In Image 1, the model
and the viewer are positioned at an eye-level vertical angle as a way of expressing relation of
equality, in other words, no power difference between them.
Another aspect in the magazine cover that is important to be considered is how the
image is designed in order to convey a model of reality in terms of modality. Modality is a
resource offered by the linguistic system to signal the degree of truth or credibility we ascribe
to our statements about the world (KRESS; VAN LEEUWEN, 2006, p. 155). In visuals,
modality is expressed in scales of intensity (modality markers) of color, brightness, sharpness,
size, depth, contextualization, representation and/or illumination, which varies according to
the viewers coding orientation.
A coding orientation is a set of criteria shared by a social group for defining its own
realism (KRESS; VAN LEEUWEN, 2006, p. 158). For instance, Image 1 presents a wide
range of color differentiation, it is quite contextualized (the model is in the corner of a room,
next to a door) and illumination seems natural (since it is possible to find such kind of
illumination in disco environments). This set of semiotic choices characterize Image 1 as
presenting a very high (or maybe the highest) level of modality, according to a photorealistic
coding orientation usually used as standard in print media. In contrast, lower levels of color
differentiation and lack of contextualization and illumination may signal to the viewer that the
visual representation is something improbable or fantastic.
The overall high level of modality expressed by the semiotic choices in Image 1 also
seems to be emphasized by some choices in verbal language. Figures 2 and 3 are instances of
factual information for they present categorical modality (FAIRCLOUGH, 2003, p. 159), in
other words, they are absolute statements about the world. Using categorical modalities in
magazines headlines and titles can be interpreted as a strategy for producing an effect of
dramatization in order to catch the viewers attention (CHARAUDEAU, 2009, p. 91).
Regarding mood choices in language, the magazine cover also presents a clause in the
imperative mood (as already pointed in the previous section), representing the authoritative
voice of the media which demands an attitude from the reader (lose the paunch) and another
imperative clause which performs a different function:

14

Example 6 Todas (elas) bate continncia!23

The imperative clause in Example 6 does not actually demand an action (to salute)
from the reader, but consists of an informal way of introducing the topic of discussion (men
in uniform) to readers by making reference to a traditional practice in the army. In this
clause, two interesting features are the use of the female gender linguistic mark (todas24) to
refer to readers (who are predominantly male) and the disagreement between the elliptical
subject (elas) and the verb form which follows it (bate)25. Referring to readers using a
female pronoun is ambiguous because it can be interpreted both as a strategy adopted by the
journalist to simulate casual conversations (typical of the language used in the Internet) and
also as a way of aligning gay males identities with the female gender, inscribing them into a
heterosexual matrix.
Besides clauses in the imperative mood, there are also some clauses in the
interrogative mood in the magazine cover:
Example 7 - Eles topam?26
Figure 4 and Example 7 both present clauses in the interrogative mood, but performing
different functions. The former is used to demand information from the reader who is able to
decide which location he prefers to travel to. On the other hand, the latter is not actually a way
of demanding information from the reader, but a rhetorical question which aims to encourage
the reader to wonder if straight males at swing clubs may engage into homosexual sexual
practices. Obviously the magazine provides an answer to the reader.
The overall interpersonal choices in both verbal and visual languages in this specific
magazine cover from Junior suggest the conversationalization (FAIRCLOUGH, 1995, p. 910) of the public media discourse. In other words, popular speech or ordinary language
colonizes into the language of the media as a discursive strategy to naturalize the terms in
which reality is represented (Fowler, 1991, p. 57 cited by FAIRCLOUGH, 1995, p. 13). Not
only the model in the magazine cover is depicted as real and involved with readers, but
23

Everybody salute!
In Brazilian Portuguese, the indefinite pronoun everybody is gendered (todas - female ou todos - male), in
contrast to the English language in which it is neutral.
25
According to the prestige linguistic norm in Brazil, a verb must agree in number and person with its subject,
therefore the subject elas (3rd person plural) requires the verb form batem instead of bate (which agrees with the
3rd person singular pronoun ele/ela).
26
Do they accept?
24

15

linguistic choices also enact a close and natural relationship between the journalist and the
magazine reader. The former seems to take the position of someone who gives advices in an
informal register (lose your paunch, 9 products to fix your skin) to a male friend and
participates into his daily routine.

5.4 Composition: designing a meaningful message

When writers and visual designers produce their messages, they not only make choices
in terms of ideational/representational and interpersonal/interactional structures, but also in
terms of how clauses, paragraphs and visuals are integrated into a meaningful whole (KRESS;
VAN LEEUWEN, 2006, p. 176).
In the selected Junior cover (Image 1), the meaning of the layout can be described in
terms of its information value, in other words, how the different positions occupied by
participants in a visual composition construe different meanings. In Image 1, visual elements
are not organized in a horizontal axis (Given-New) or vertical axis (Ideal-Real), but in a
Center-Margin visual structure (KRESS; VAN LEEUWEN, 2006, p. 194).
The model (Erasmo Vianna) occupies a central position in the visual composition and
is surrounded by pieces of verbal language 27 which are placed into the margins of the frame.
Through this visual pattern, the model is presented as the nucleus of the information and the
other elements are, in some way, dependent on him. In fact, his body (specifically his chest)
occupies the most central part of the composition and it can be considered a visual expression
of the divine or some other exalted power (ARNHEIM, 1982, p. 72). In this sense, Erasmo
Vianna is the personification of all those meanings expressed in verbal language (related to
sex, pleasure and beauty) which may constitute a hegemonic model of (gay) identity
conveyed by the magazine.
6 CONCLUSION
The present paper constituted a first attempt to carry out a multimodal critical
discourse analysis of male homoerotic magazines. In order to make a first step towards the
attainment of this objective, one front cover from Junior magazine was analyzed in terms of
27

The analysis of theme-rheme position in the verbal language presented in the selected cover is not relevant
since most part of the headlines does not constitute into full clauses, but only into noun phrases.

16

how both verbal and visual languages construe representations and social relationships and
how both modes of language are integrated to compose a meaningful message.
Although the results described throughout the paper are preliminary and do not
provide enough ground for making broad generalizations, the analysis served to shed light on
the validity of some analytical categories (e.g. the possibility of a center-margin visual pattern
in Junior magazine covers) and their potential interpretative value (e.g. the model depicted as
the embodiment of a hegemonic lifestyle or masculinity which does not widen the concept of
identity but narrows it and excludes other subjectivities). In addition, the analysis was useful
for making some initial hypothesis concerning the social practices constituted in the magazine
discourse and for pointing out some research directions for further detailed analyses.
Further steps in the research may include: to collect a larger corpus composed by
magazines produced in other countries (U.S. and U.K.), to analyze other genres besides the
magazine front cover (such as letters to the editor, features and advertisements), to compare
the lexico-grammatical features across different genres and magazines and to analyze the
semiotic choices in the light of magazines contexts of production, distribution and
consumption.
To sum up, the further steps pointed above may provide answers to the following
research questions which guide the broader investigation on discourses of gender, body,
sexuality which the present work is part of:

How are discourses on the body, identity, sexuality constructed in the inter-semiotic
genre chain that composes magazines?

What intertextual and interdiscourse relations are established between texts and
discourses presented in magazines?

Which lexico-grammatical choices reflect dominant stereotypes of gender, sexuality,

body, identity in magazines texts?

What social (and gender) relationships are established between represented

participants? How are such relationships realized in texts?

Which semiotic elements in texts are associated to different contexts of culture?

To what extent are the social practices constituted in male homoerotic magazines
equivalent to those from female magazines?

17

7 REFERENCES:
ARNHEIM, R. The power of the center: a study of composition in the Visual Arts. Berkeley,
CA: University of California Press, 1982.
BHATIA, V. K. Worlds of written discourse: a genre-based view. London/New York:
Continuum, 2004.
BUTLER, J. Bodies that Matter: on the discursive limits of sex. New York: Routledge, 1993.
BUTLER, J. Gender Trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge,
1990.
CASTRO, A. L. de. Culto ao corpo e sociedade: mdia, estilos de vida e cultura de consumo.
So Paulo: Annablume: Fapesp, 2003.
CHARAUDEAU, P. Discurso das mdias. So Paulo: Contexto, 2009.
CHOULIARAKI, L.; FAIRCLOUGH, N. Discourse in late modernity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 1999.
COLLING, L. Personagens homossexuais nas telenovelas da rede globo: criminosos,
afetados e heterossexualizados. Revista Gnero, v. 8, n. 1, pp. 207-221, 2007.
ESHREF, B. B. The white hyper-sexualized gay male: a lack of diversity in gay male
magazines. Unpublished graduate thesis. Vancouver: The University of British Columbia,
2009.
FAIRCLOUGH, N. Analysing discourse: textual analysis for social research. London/New
York: Routledge, 2003.
FAIRCLOUGH, N. Discourse and social change. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992.
FAIRCLOUGH, N. Media discourse. London: Edward Arnold, 1995.
GIDDENS, A. Modernity and self-identity - self and society in the late modern age.
Cambridge, Polity Press, 1991.

18

HALLIDAY, M. A. K. An introduction to functional

London/Melbourne/Auckland: Edward Arnold, 1994/2004.

grammar.

3.

Ed.

HALLIDAY, M. A. K. Part A. In: HALLIDAY, M.A.K.; HASAN, R. Language, context, and

text: aspects of language in a social-semiotic perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1989. p. 3-49.
HEBERLE, V. M. Revistas femininas para mulheres no sculo 21: ainda uma prtica
discursiva de consolidao ou de renovao de idias. Linguagem em (Dis)curso, v. 4, n. esp,
pp. 85-112, 2004.
HODGE, B.; KRESS, G. Social semiotics. Cambridge: Polity, 1988.
JAWORSKI, A.; COUPLAND, N. (eds.). The discourse reader. 2. ed. London/New York:
Routledge, 2000.
KRESS, G. Linguistic processes in sociocultural practice. 2. Ed. London: Oxford University
Press, 1989.
KRESS, G.; VAN LEEUWEN, T. Reading images: the grammar of visual design. 1. and 2.
eds. London: Routledge, 1996/2006.
KUHAR, R. Stereotyping. In: KUHAR, R. Media representations of homosexuality: an
analysis of the print media in Slovenia, 1970-2000. Slovenia: Peace Institute, 2003. pp. 47-56,
2003.
LIMA, M. A. Em busca da normalidade: Sui Generis e o estilo de vida gay. Instituto de
Estudos de Gnero, v. 2, n. 1, pp. 109-128, 2001.
MCLOUGHIN, L. The language of magazines. London: Routledge, 2000.
MOITA-LOPES, L. P. Falta homem at pra homem: In: HEBERLE, V. M.; OSTERMANN,
A. C.; FIGUEIREDO, D. de C. Linguagem e gnero: no trabalho, na mdia e em outros
contextos. Florianpolis: Editora da UFSC, 2006. pp. 131-157.
PEREIRA, R. A. As cartas de aconselhamento como espao de socioconstruo da identidade
homossexual. Signum: Estudos da Linguagem, v. 9, n. 2, pp. 185-203, 2006.

19

SCOTT, J. Gender: a useful category of historical analysis. American Historical Review, v.

91, n.5, pp. 1053-1075, 1986.
WALLACE, C. Critical reading in language education. Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.