Signs of Masculinism in an 'Uneasy' Place: Advertising for 'Big Brothers'
   Gender, Place and Culture (in press).

Abstract:
Big Brothers’ is an international, philanthropic fraternal organization dedicated, in its own words, "to match boys seven to seventeen from lone-parent female families with mature male role models over eighteen....toward contributing to the healthy development of these children." A primary objective of this ninety year old institution is thus to instill a masculine culture and nurture a masculine identity in male children by providing an adult male presence, three to four hours a week, in the lives of boys without a male role model. But which kinds of masculine identities are promoted as acceptable and why? Drawing upon the geographies of feminism, masculinity, and advertising, this paper presents a socio-semiotic analysis of the format, content and signs employed by ‘Big Brothers’ of Canada and the United States in their recruitment campaigns. Using printed promotional material spanning the institute’s history, as well an interview with the Marketing Director of a recent Big Brother recruitment campaign, the slogans, icons, and gender-myths used to represent males and same-sex friendships in the symbolic spaces of their advertisements are critiqued. Results exemplify the instability of the ‘masculine gaze’ and suggest that the discourse of patriarchal masculinity situates the Big Brothers institute itself in an ‘uneasy’ place, one where the masculine gender-myths may be collapsing but are nevertheless evoked to ensure volunteers and society at large that a ‘legitimate’ form of homosocial masculinity prevails, one that does not transgress ‘out of bounds’ and into the ‘homosexual’.