![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
Abstract
Literature on men's health help-seeking suggests that, consistent with hegemonic masculine ideals, men display a general preference for solution-focused interaction. Men's health services routinely orient to this preference, emphasising assistance in the form of practical advice. Little research, however, has examined the nature of actual interactions between men and health professionals. The present paper analyses interaction on a men's telephone relationship-counselling service, focusing on reasons for calling. We demonstrate some recurring interactional patterns relating to the helpline's institutional philosophy of solution-focused counselling. Specifically, callers routinely engaged in narrative reporting of relationship troubles rather than indicating that they were seeking advice; counsellors, however, routinely orientated to the role of advice- and information-provider, in addition to that of troubles-talk recipient. We examine the recurring interactional disfluencies around this reason-for-call talk, considering some consequences for institutional help-giving that arise from the assumption of a male preference for solution-focused healthcare.
Notes
1. Although space limitations prohibit a fuller discussion, it is important to note terminological issues; here, specifically the use of ‘men’, ‘male’ and ‘masculinity’. The term masculinity traditionally refers to the possession of qualities or characteristics typical of, and appropriate to, the male sex, whereas ‘men’ and ‘male’ typically refer to biological sex. Social constructionist perspectives, however, do not view masculinity as an inherent quality that is ‘possessed’ by men. Rather, the plural term ‘masculinities’ is routinely used to acknowledge the variety of ways there are of being a man, and the distribution of power that occurs across different versions of masculinity.
2. A ‘transition-relevance place’ is the span between the completion of one turn-construction unit (TCU) and the commencement of another (Schegloff 2007).