I was able to find most of the information about the method used in section 3.

2 Analytical
Approach. First, he chooses a topic to conduct a study about, in this case masculinity and
veganism. Second, he choses a way to collect data to then perform the analysis on. The author
chose reddit due to it “[bringing] together the affordances of social media, including
user-generated content, net­worked audiences, online message boards, anonymity, volunteer
moderation and subject specificity,” (page 2). Third, he chooses to use the Critical Discourse
Analysis method to analyze his findings from his research. The CDA method is:
“broadly a perspective on discourse analysis which combines close analysis of
linguistic choices with theoretically informed accounts of context in order to elucidate the
processes through which language and discourse (re)produce social practices and
privilege certain practices over others,” (page 3).
Fourth, after choosing the method of analyzing he wished to use, the author secondly refines
that method to Fairclough's three-dimensional approach to be able to analyze his findings in a
specific way of relating power and dominance with ideas of masculinity through three levels: “(i.)
the textual level; (ii.) discourse practice; and (iii.) social practice,” (page 3). Fifth, he states that
he will be searching for these posts by refining them down to certain words that are often
denoted as masculine , “referring to a man using terms such as ‘man’, ‘boy’ or even ‘bitch’…
describing men in terms of qualities they possess (e.g. being ‘real’),” (page 3). Sixth, he creates
a string of code to search the subreddit in its entirety for such words that retain to his study, he
is not clear in how the code was created or enacted however. Seventh, He makes sure to code
it to the extent where it searches for only mentions of men, man, or masculinity or words
pertaining to. Eighth, the author doesn’t describe how this occurs, but I can infer that they read
over the posts the code selected out for them to see the data collected. To which, ninth, they
then analyzed the findings of their method using the chosen analysis method and created a
conclusion based upon the analysis produced.

I love this method, personally. However, I don’t know how well I’d be able to use it. The analysis
method would be easier to implement, seeing as it is more of a way of thinking over creating a
bot to sweep an entire subreddit. I feel like I would be able to successfully reenact the CDA
method as well, and it is definitely something I’d want to look more into to see if I could use it for
my own study. Currently, seeing as it pertains to my own interests, the study I’d like to conduct is
based on fanfiction. Likely, I’d create an anonymously answerable google form about gender
identity and fanfiction. Seeing how many people read fanfiction and do or don’t identify with their
assigned gender at birth. If feasible, though.

The structure of this paper is very easily broken down due to the section headers. It starts first
with an introduction, then second a background to supply the reader with necessary information
about the study. Third the methodology they wish to use to conduct their study, and fourth the
findings and data they discovered. Finishing with the fifth section – the conclusion. In the
introduction, he establishes what the study is about and defines the two big ideas: veganism
and masculinity. They establish their exigence by commenting on the idea that vegan men get –
in a sense – bullied by their peers, and wanted to delve into how vegan men see themselves in
comparison. The author then briefly touches on the method they use before going into the
background of the paper. They describe in more detail the exigency of the article, talking more
about gender expectations and how it affects the way we as humans see other people. The
author cites numerous references to back his claims throughout this section. They slightly pose
questions as well like “what makes a man” and “what is masculinity.” He then answers those
questions with definitions found from other researchers and cites those works accordingly. They
offer a large number of visuals from their findings. One in terms of a photo, the other in terms of
thirty-seven separate extracts from posts they accumulated while researching. They present
their research using these extracts and backing up the conclusions they drew from them using
the same references mentioned in the background section of the article. Their conclusion and
closing essentially restates their findings in a concise way, while also stating the possible errors
in their research or how things could’ve been messed up.

A real man is something undefinable. The author touches on this for a few sentences that the
idea of gender is in some ways a made up social construct and personally I believe that. A real
man cannot exist, because being “real” is a trait that comes with being a human and being a
man is just a label to identify yourself with typically “masculine” things. However, the idea of
masculinity promotes a “real man” as someone who possesses a penis, is strong or muscular,
protects weaker beings through violence, isn’t emotional, is bold or brave, and never cries.
Grilling vegetables has nothing to do with manliness, but for some it has to be some sort of
rebellion to the “norm.” Grills, an object that has been given a masculine connotation, are mainly
used to grill meat products. Using a grill to instead grill vegetables (besides being another way
to eat vegetables) is a sense of “sticking it to the man” and being different. I think it could also
be a way for these vegan men to try and “take back” their masculinity by using a typically
masculine object for a more feminine (veganism) purpose. Making it manly again to feel better
about themselves.

Bonus: he states he uses reddit due to it being a community site. The section titled “3.1 Data”
lists every single reason he is using reddit, as well as defends it.