The interrelationship among Cypriot Greek, Standard Modern Greek, and masculinity: doing straight (-acting) masculinity on Grindr

ABSTRACT

The current study examines the language Greek Cypriot men report they use on Grindr, a mobile dating application for gay, bisexual, or curious men in relation to masculinity. Given the diglossic context of Cyprus, semi-structured interviews with 19 Greek Cypriot MSM Grindr users were carried out in an attempt to identify their linguistic choices and language attitudes in relation to local hegemonic masculinity. Cypriot Greek and its more basilectal register levels have been identified as the ones preferred on Grindr. Τhey are believed to be both, a tool for identifying and projecting masculinity. Interestingly, Cypriot Greek has also become indexical of a straight-acting homosocial homosexuality while its users, who seem to be governed by anti-effeminate attitudes and pro-masculinity, are pictured to be more heteronormatively masculine than MSM who use other linguistic varieties or register levels.

KEYWORDS:

• MSM
• language attitudes
• hegemonic masculinity
• Cypriot Greek
• indexical meaning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.