Processi di designazione del maschile in app di incontro per uomini

Abstract

Abstract – This contribution investigates the processes of masculine designation in short profile texts from male dating apps, with particular attention to the Italian terms maschio and maschile and to their distribution as auto-designations and hetero-designations. On the basis of a primary corpus of 39 Grindr profile texts, supplemented by comparative materials collected between 2021 and 2022 from Romeo, Scruff, Wapo and related platforms, as well as by subsequent qualitative checks carried out up to 2026, the paper analyses profiles as brief, pragmatically dense texts in which self-presentation and partner selection converge in a device of identity regulation. The study argues that maschio and maschile do not function as merely referential descriptors, but as normative operators: they establish thresholds of access to interaction, distinguish desirable from undesirable partners, and construct a selective solidarity among subjects who recognize themselves in a model of discreet, reserved, embodied and anti-effeminate virility. The analysis shows the prevalence of hetero-designations, the centrality of sexual positioning as an implicit classificatory criterion, and the recurrence of negative designations that feminize, ridicule or exclude men perceived as effeminate or passive.

Keywords: masculine designation; maschio; maschile; auto-designation; hetero-designation; sexual positioning.

Recapito autore: albertomanco@unior.it