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Volume 6, Issue 2
  • ISSN 2211-3770
  • E-ISSN: 2211-3789
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Abstract

In 2014, a British journalist coined the term to account for the emergence of a body-obsessed version of . While metrosexuals practice beautification rituals, spornosexuals are men obsessed with developing muscular bodies and self-objectifyingly flaunting them online. In an age of neoliberalism and globalization, this form of masculinity has now spread worldwide, including to Singapore, as a hegemonic ideal male figure. Using a multimodal analysis, we investigate four racially Chinese, Singapore-based Instagram users who represent prototypical spornosexual ideals through their bodies and fitness practices. We examine the way these Instagram users embody the personhood of a spornosexual through their construction of mediatized identities online. The meanings and values associated with the muscular body are also explored and subsequently compared with traditional notions of masculinity in Singapore.

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2017-09-22
2025-04-27

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Building a body of followers
Journal of Language and Sexuality 6, 262 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.6.2.03hir
/content/journals/10.1075/jls.6.2.03hir
/content/journals/10.1075/jls.6.2.03hir
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): globalization; Instagram; masculinity; mediatization; multimodal analysis; neoliberalism; Singapore; spornosexuality

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