Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how gendered wine-drinker identities are constructed through stories of wine consumption in Kenya.

Design/methodology/approach

The data comes from a corpus of 19 in-depth semi-structured interviews collected in Nairobi, Kenya. Taking a narrative approach, this paper uses positioning theory as a fine-grained linguistic methodological tool to analyze stories of gendered wine consumption.

Findings

A key finding of the study is that wine consumption can enact, and be enacted by, wider normative societal gendered discourses of what men and women should and, should not, be drinking. In short, in some societies (Kenya being an example here) men drinking wine is subject to the normative gaze of their peers; and if men drink wine, they are not considered “real men.” This is so even when chatting up women, in which case male wine-drinkers are ascribed to the subordinate male identities of either the “new man” or the romantic man. However, male wine-drinkers can retain a real man identity if they are wealthy (and powerful) enough not to care what other men think.

Practical implications

The study provides new insights for targeting consumers in emerging export markets. Wine companies need to be aware that the purchase drivers in established markets may not be central to consumers in developing markets. In developing markets, wine consumption may be influenced by the normative gaze of peers which enacts, and is enacted by, societal gendered discourses. Crucially, a thorough understanding of consumer behavior leads to a more critical consideration for focused marketing strategies aimed at establishing relationships with customers in developing markets.

Originality/value

The study offers an original contribution to the barely existent body of knowledge on wine consumption in sub-Saharan Africa and gendered wine-drinking identity construction. Additionally, from a methodological perspective, no previous study on wine consumption has used a narrative identity approach to the fine-grained linguistic analysis of transcripts of stories elicited during research interviews.

中文翻译：

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“那不是男人的酒”。通过肯尼亚葡萄酒消费故事构建性别认同

目的

本文的目的是探索如何通过肯尼亚的葡萄酒消费故事来构建性别饮酒者的身份。

设计/方法/方法

数据来自在肯尼亚内罗毕收集的 19 次深度半结构化访谈的语料库。本文采用叙事方法，使用定位理论作为细粒度语言方法工具来分析性别化葡萄酒消费故事。

发现

该研究的一个关键发现是，葡萄酒消费可以制定，并被更广泛的规范社会性别话语制定，男性和女性应该和不应该喝酒。简而言之，在某些社会（肯尼亚就是一个例子），喝酒的男人会受到同龄人的规范凝视；如果男人喝酒，他们就不会被认为是“真正的男人”。即使在和女性聊天时也是如此，在这种情况下，男性饮酒者被归于“新男人”或浪漫男人的从属男性身份。然而，如果男性饮酒者足够富有（和有权势）而不关心其他男人的想法，他们可以保留真正的男人身份。

实际影响

该研究为瞄准新兴出口市场的消费者提供了新的见解。葡萄酒公司需要意识到，成熟市场的购买驱动因素可能不是发展中市场消费者的核心。在发展中市场，葡萄酒消费可能会受到同龄人的规范凝视的影响，这些凝视制定并被社会性别话语制定。至关重要的是，对消费者行为的透彻了解有助于对旨在与发展中市场的客户建立关系的重点营销策略进行更重要的考虑。

原创性/价值

该研究为撒哈拉以南非洲地区几乎不存在的葡萄酒消费知识体系和性别饮酒身份构建提供了原创性贡献。此外，从方法论的角度来看，之前关于葡萄酒消费的研究都没有使用叙事身份方法对研究访谈期间引出的故事抄本进行细粒度的语言分析。