VI. Becoming a 'bloke': The construction of gender in interaction

Abstract

This article uses conversation analysis (CA) on a single case study (a call to a helpline for women with symphysis pubis dysfunction) to explore how, and why, a speaker produces a non-present third person she has earlier referred to using a non-gendered term ('your partner') as a member of a gendered category ('a bloke') and why she later seeks to undo this categorization. This contributes to (feminist) CA an understanding of how gender is constructed in talk-in-interaction and, more generally, to understandings of membership categorization and person reference. © 2007 SAGE.