Language and Sexuality Flashcards
What is Robin Lakoffs 1975 theory on sexuality?
In her book ‘language and woman’s place’ says gay men deliberately imitate stereotypical characteristics of woman’s speech, using more superlatives and inflected intonation. This doesn’t have much merit because it is reductive, simplistic and doesn’t account for everyone in the community, also, the context has shifted since 1975
What is Podesva’s theory?
Talks about code switching where a gay lawyer on the radio talks about discrimination balancing the need to sound recognisably gay and recognisably educated as ‘gay speech’ tends to be associated with frivolity and lack of social power, exploratory switching is using certain key words and mannerisms to establish a shared identity
What is Coates and Jordan’s 1997?
Lesbian speech is marked by less distinct forms and a more collaborative conversational environment, more in line with traditional female speech, language does not suggest a difference between lesbian and heterosexual women but a marked difference between homosexual vs heterosexual men
What is Don Kulick’s theory?
We cannot fit the queer community into fixed categories, we are not just defined by sexuality, there is not an overarching queer language, people are unique, there might be features of gay speech i.e. polari, but this does not apply to every context, has merit
What is Chambers’ 2006 theory?
Television ‘produced and reproduced the norms of gender and sexuality that are our lived reality (both political and social)’, gives us repeated patterns - if we see patterns enough we start believing them, tv and media is a constant presence which set stereotypes, in part, stereotypes exist for a reason and speakers may play to these, chambers is right in acknowledging that stereotypes come into play in elements of gay talk
What is Marilyn Butler’s theory on prescriptive gender?
Gender is “never merely descriptive but prescriptive” we are assigned a gender at birth and are socialised to act in a ‘girlish’ or ‘boyish’ manner, the midwife saying “it’s a girl” sets off the whole linguistic determination, and implies certain expectations, to fit cultural expectations we make “performative acts”
What is Motschenbasher et al’s theory?
Studied gender performativity, claim a “non normative gender performance is seen as indicative of a non-normative sexual identity, in that an insufficiently feminine gender performance on the part of a female is evidence of her alleged homosexuality, people label too readily, limited merit
What is valentova and Havlicek’s theory?
“Perceived sexual orientation based on vocal and facial stimuli linked go self-rated sexual orientation in Czech men”, you can tell whether men are homosexual based on voice or looks, very limited merit, no proof, undercurrent of homophobia, doesn’t acknowledge sexuality as a spectrum
What is Leonard RN Ashley’s theory?
In their book ‘Dyke Diction: The language of Lesbians’ said that lesbian slang for female genitalia was similar to that used by nuns, if true, slang terms are not a construct of gender but of minority groups; contextual rather than innate
What is Bent Munson et al’s theory?
The influence of sexual orientation on vowel production, no innate difference at birth, homosexuals selectively adopt their speech patterns to fit a particular social group
What are the pragmatics of ‘queer’?
Meaning odd, implies the other not a part of mainstream society
What are the pragmatics of lesbo?
Derogatory term
What are the connotations of straight?
Connotations of a straight line, preferred and normal, no other real words for it
What are the pragmatics of gay?
The most acceptable term, but has become linked to negativity, implies it’s wrong
What are the pragmatics of ‘bi’?
Not taboo language but criticism of being selfish and greedy, promiscuous
What are the pragmatics of ‘bicurious’?
It’s a choice/it’s a phase
What are the pragmatics cog ‘gender fluid’?
Not a set gender, no real identity, a phase
What are the pragmatics of ‘bent’?
Being defined by a sexual act, suggests something is broken
What are the pragmatics of dyke?
Very masculine, implies butchness, misogynistic, antiwomen
What are the pragmatics of puff?
Derogatory sexualised term, anti laddish behaviours
What are the pragmatics of breeder?
Violent sex act
what is meant by the gay community appropriating terms such as ‘dyke’ and ‘fag’?
they have taken on and taken back these terms, this is used to create an identity for themselves, as if the communit have become included in the insult thus taking away its power, this normalises the term, all abot taking power back, empowering because it reflects social change
why might gay men use female pronouns?
dissociates gay men from heterosexual norms, more for solidarity
how might gay men use language to create a community?
can’t assume everyone is the same but, they are likely to imitate the characteristics of other gay men for solidarity, quite often use female pronouns (puts them in opposition to hetero norms, could be a joke or to stabilise a group)
what words may have entered the lexicon for gay men?
yes queen/sister/female pronouns
how does channel 4 news reinforce the need for pride?
one in four parents had concerns if their child came out as queer, one in ten parents said they would feel uncomfortable living with a queer child, proves even in todays society being gay is still seen as taboo
what is meant by lexicon?
a wide shared vocab
what is the theory on polari?
a gay slang language, low register and colloquial, not inclusive; if you don’t know you don’t know, gay community feel nostalgic about it (most common in 60s), secret language passed on, not much written down, ever changing collection of slang, not fixed, difficult to pin down, two dialects in london, mixed with standard english redacting key words
why was polari necessary before 1967?
the decriminalisation of gay acts (obseen)
what is meant by code switching?
quickly changing the topic, what you’re saying and how you say it, linked to your prosodic features, pre 1967 it was safety for the gay community, slipping between polari and standard english, can identify individuals to more than one social group by using exploratary switching
what is the theory on lesbian speech?
little difference to typical female speech, the identity as a woman is more important than their sexuality
what are lakoff’s rules of conversation/ politeness principle?
don’t impose, give options, make the receiver feel good i.e. save their positive face
when was it first made legal to be LGBTQ+ in the armed forces?
2000
what are the problems with the gender neutral pronouns?
doesn’t always make sense as plural, started off as ‘ze’ which is too similar to ‘he’, can be seen as dehumanising
what is meant by a topic marker?
where the topic is set by a speaker
what is meant by a topic shift?
topic attempted to move
what is meant by a topic loop?
conversation returns to original topic
