This article presents a corpus study spanning 11 years (2011–2022) of language referring to Gwyndolin, a boss in the videogame Dark Souls. Like many aspects of Dark Souls, Gwyndolin’s gender is open to interpretation, and this study tracks how both players’ readings of Gwyndolin’s gender and the pronouns they use to refer to Gwyndolin have changed over the past decade. The results show that, while players overwhelmingly read Gwyndolin as a cis man and use the pronoun ‘he’, there have been significant increases in trans and nonbinary interpretations, as well as the use of ‘they’ after 2015. The observed patterns can be linked to social changes inside and outside videogame culture occurring around 2014–2016. The study provides valuable real-time support for the existence of a change in the pronoun system (and its relation to trans/nonbinary identities), which had previously only been proposed on the basis of apparent-time data.
{"title":"‘I didn’t know they could one-shot me!’","authors":"Heather Burnett, Matthew Iver Loder","doi":"10.1558/genl.23838","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.23838","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents a corpus study spanning 11 years (2011–2022) of language referring to Gwyndolin, a boss in the videogame Dark Souls. Like many aspects of Dark Souls, Gwyndolin’s gender is open to interpretation, and this study tracks how both players’ readings of Gwyndolin’s gender and the pronouns they use to refer to Gwyndolin have changed over the past decade. The results show that, while players overwhelmingly read Gwyndolin as a cis man and use the pronoun ‘he’, there have been significant increases in trans and nonbinary interpretations, as well as the use of ‘they’ after 2015. The observed patterns can be linked to social changes inside and outside videogame culture occurring around 2014–2016. The study provides valuable real-time support for the existence of a change in the pronoun system (and its relation to trans/nonbinary identities), which had previously only been proposed on the basis of apparent-time data.","PeriodicalId":44706,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Language","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141268110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Intersectional Perspectives on LGBTQ+ Issues in Modern Language Teaching and LearningJoshua M. Paiz and James E. Coda (2021)Palgrave Macmillan, 288pp.
现代语言教学中 LGBTQ+ 问题的交叉视角Joshua M. Paiz 和 James E. Coda (2021)，Palgrave Macmillan，288 页。
{"title":"'Intersectional Perspectives on LGBTQ+ Issues in Modern Language Teaching and Learning' Joshua M. Paiz and James E. Coda (2021)","authors":"Gulsah Kutuk","doi":"10.1558/genl.29243","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.29243","url":null,"abstract":"Intersectional Perspectives on LGBTQ+ Issues in Modern Language Teaching and LearningJoshua M. Paiz and James E. Coda (2021)Palgrave Macmillan, 288pp.","PeriodicalId":44706,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Language","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141267266","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this article, the navigation of normativities by same-gender-attracted, male-identified individuals in Chengdu, China is considered with reference to their linguistic identity work. It foregrounds the relevance of plural normativities, which often arise from intersecting structural forces with diverse cultural roots, to better acknowledge the rich diversity of the broader sexual minority community in China. In turn, it argues that individual performances of sexual identity cannot be accurately accounted for using essentialist notions of culture. Furthermore, it is suggested that a sociocultural discourse analysis approach can provide an important and novel perspective on sexual identity in the region. Taking up this perspective questions and challenges assumptions of a characteristic orientation to normality in ‘Chinese culture’ and complicates oversimplified conceptualisations of normativity.
{"title":"The sociolinguistic navigation of sexual normativities among same-gender-attracted men in contemporary Chengdu, China","authors":"Phil Freestone","doi":"10.1558/genl.21208","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.21208","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, the navigation of normativities by same-gender-attracted, male-identified individuals in Chengdu, China is considered with reference to their linguistic identity work. It foregrounds the relevance of plural normativities, which often arise from intersecting structural forces with diverse cultural roots, to better acknowledge the rich diversity of the broader sexual minority community in China. In turn, it argues that individual performances of sexual identity cannot be accurately accounted for using essentialist notions of culture. Furthermore, it is suggested that a sociocultural discourse analysis approach can provide an important and novel perspective on sexual identity in the region. Taking up this perspective questions and challenges assumptions of a characteristic orientation to normality in ‘Chinese culture’ and complicates oversimplified conceptualisations of normativity.","PeriodicalId":44706,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Language","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141268305","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Language and Mediated Masculinities: Cultures, Contexts, ConstraintsRobert Lawson (2023)Oxford University Press, 344pp.
语言与媒介男性：罗伯特-劳森（2023 年），牛津大学出版社，344 页。
{"title":"'Language and Mediated Masculinities: Cultures, Contexts, Constraints' Robert Lawson (2023)","authors":"Scott Burnett","doi":"10.1558/genl.29242","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.29242","url":null,"abstract":"Language and Mediated Masculinities: Cultures, Contexts, ConstraintsRobert Lawson (2023)Oxford University Press, 344pp.","PeriodicalId":44706,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Language","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141268295","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
As male endorsement in advertising continues to expand, and alternative forms of masculinity emerge in Asia and elsewhere, this article asks how skincare advertisements in Bangkok participate in these worldwide trends and how different forms of masculinity are represented and embodied in such advertising. The article analyses skincare advertising signs – banal sexed signs that form a significant part of Bangkok’s linguistic landscape – through the lens of social semiotics. The analysis reveals the use of both a more stereotypical form of masculinity associated with male heterosexuality and the ‘new man’, a masculinity associated with a ‘softer’ personality and Asian beauty trends. Important components contributing to the latter image include depictions of ‘feminine touch’ and multilingual texts. The findings illustrate how the new man serves as an important marketing tool, promoting not only a particular masculinity but also a modern, middle-class lifestyle.
{"title":"Male product endorsers and the embodiment of modern Thai masculinities in skincare advertisements","authors":"Pavadee Saisuwan","doi":"10.1558/genl.24244","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.24244","url":null,"abstract":"As male endorsement in advertising continues to expand, and alternative forms of masculinity emerge in Asia and elsewhere, this article asks how skincare advertisements in Bangkok participate in these worldwide trends and how different forms of masculinity are represented and embodied in such advertising. The article analyses skincare advertising signs – banal sexed signs that form a significant part of Bangkok’s linguistic landscape – through the lens of social semiotics. The analysis reveals the use of both a more stereotypical form of masculinity associated with male heterosexuality and the ‘new man’, a masculinity associated with a ‘softer’ personality and Asian beauty trends. Important components contributing to the latter image include depictions of ‘feminine touch’ and multilingual texts. The findings illustrate how the new man serves as an important marketing tool, promoting not only a particular masculinity but also a modern, middle-class lifestyle.","PeriodicalId":44706,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Language","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141265821","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article explores rhotacisation in Beijing Mandarin and its use in the popular 2015 Chinese web series Counterattack! (Nìxí zhi Àishàng Qíngdí), notable for its viral success in China despite overt homosexual representation. Research on sociolinguistic variation among professionals in Beijing has identified Beijing rhotacisation (the r-colouring of syllable codas) as indexing a local male persona historically linked to fluidity of conversation: the ‘Smooth Operator’. The current analysis builds on this claim to suggest that rhotacisation may also be used to evaluate and display sexual knowledge. The use of rhotacisation in Counterattack! stylistically incorporates ‘Smooth Operator’-imbued meanings of conversational dexterity into a new social persona: the ‘Sexual Modern’. The analysis suggests that this variable – previously discussed as indexing a local urban masculinity – has now also become indexical of sexual modernity.
{"title":"Pow-érhuà","authors":"Andrew W. Ting","doi":"10.1558/genl.20413","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.20413","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores rhotacisation in Beijing Mandarin and its use in the popular 2015 Chinese web series Counterattack! (Nìxí zhi Àishàng Qíngdí), notable for its viral success in China despite overt homosexual representation. Research on sociolinguistic variation among professionals in Beijing has identified Beijing rhotacisation (the r-colouring of syllable codas) as indexing a local male persona historically linked to fluidity of conversation: the ‘Smooth Operator’. The current analysis builds on this claim to suggest that rhotacisation may also be used to evaluate and display sexual knowledge. The use of rhotacisation in Counterattack! stylistically incorporates ‘Smooth Operator’-imbued meanings of conversational dexterity into a new social persona: the ‘Sexual Modern’. The analysis suggests that this variable – previously discussed as indexing a local urban masculinity – has now also become indexical of sexual modernity.","PeriodicalId":44706,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Language","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141266846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article centres the Global South in studies of language and mobility by focusing on migration discourse in El Salvador, a Central American country with four decades of widespread emigration. The analysis examines state-endorsed discourses, tracing how entextualised figures of migrant personhood shift over time in response to changing political-economic conditions. Gender is central to these dominant depictions, which rely on a consistent contrast between successful and failed migrants that mobilises neoliberal models of personhood. This dichotomy emerges through indexical associations with heteropatriachal forms of care: successful migrants fulfil their responsibilities by providing for their family and their nation, whereas failed migrants do not. By placing the onus on individual actions, these dominant discourses elide the state abandonment and global political economic inequalities that continue to compel Salvadorans to migrate.
{"title":"National heroes or dangerous failures","authors":"Lynnette Arnold","doi":"10.1558/genl.22687","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.22687","url":null,"abstract":"This article centres the Global South in studies of language and mobility by focusing on migration discourse in El Salvador, a Central American country with four decades of widespread emigration. The analysis examines state-endorsed discourses, tracing how entextualised figures of migrant personhood shift over time in response to changing political-economic conditions. Gender is central to these dominant depictions, which rely on a consistent contrast between successful and failed migrants that mobilises neoliberal models of personhood. This dichotomy emerges through indexical associations with heteropatriachal forms of care: successful migrants fulfil their responsibilities by providing for their family and their nation, whereas failed migrants do not. By placing the onus on individual actions, these dominant discourses elide the state abandonment and global political economic inequalities that continue to compel Salvadorans to migrate.","PeriodicalId":44706,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Language","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139531653","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This introduction frames the special issue ‘Mobilising Language, Gender and Sexuality Studies’, situating the contributions in relation to interdisciplinary scholarship on migration, gender, sexuality and language. In particular, this introduction draws attention to Global South theorisations of migration as resistance, suggesting that scholars of language, gender and sexuality can build on such approaches to trace forms of agency that otherwise might go unnoticed. The contributions to this special issue investigate how gender and language circulate in dominant migration discourses and are contested by mobile communities, linking normative ideologies to individual bodies and lives through the use of stereotyped figures. The introduction also highlights how themes of time, place and nation weave through the contributions and calls for a scalar approach that resists the widespread downscaling of migrants’ own discursive acts. It concludes with a call to action that urges scholars to consider how they might support the ways in which mobile communities are making sense of and taking action in the world.
{"title":"Mobilising language, gender and sexuality studies","authors":"Lynnette Arnold, Kristine Køhler Mortensen","doi":"10.1558/genl.26689","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.26689","url":null,"abstract":"This introduction frames the special issue ‘Mobilising Language, Gender and Sexuality Studies’, situating the contributions in relation to interdisciplinary scholarship on migration, gender, sexuality and language. In particular, this introduction draws attention to Global South theorisations of migration as resistance, suggesting that scholars of language, gender and sexuality can build on such approaches to trace forms of agency that otherwise might go unnoticed. The contributions to this special issue investigate how gender and language circulate in dominant migration discourses and are contested by mobile communities, linking normative ideologies to individual bodies and lives through the use of stereotyped figures. The introduction also highlights how themes of time, place and nation weave through the contributions and calls for a scalar approach that resists the widespread downscaling of migrants’ own discursive acts. It concludes with a call to action that urges scholars to consider how they might support the ways in which mobile communities are making sense of and taking action in the world.","PeriodicalId":44706,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Language","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139624084","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"'The Language of Pick-Up Artists: Online Discourses of the Seduction Industry' Daria Dayter and Sofia Rüdiger (2022)","authors":"Laura Filardo-Llamas","doi":"10.1558/genl.27558","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.27558","url":null,"abstract":"The Language of Pick-Up Artists: Online Discourses of the Seduction IndustryDaria Dayter and Sofia Rüdiger (2022)Routledge, 217pp.","PeriodicalId":44706,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Language","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139624865","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Queer Asylum Stories project collected interviews with people who had successfully gained asylum based on their sexuality. The focus of this article is on life stories leading up to and triggering the decision to seek asylum, and the processes of formation of the interviewees’ queer subjectivity. The discussion draws on the three related constructs of interpellation, ideological becoming and habitus, and considers the role of queer activism, understood as a dimension of queer habitus as theorised in the foundational work of Didier Eribon. Finding that the term ‘activism’ is widely used but infrequently defined, the article suggests that activism in general, and queer activism in particular, need to be defined explicitly and explored in order to gain a deeper understanding of what is involved. It provides a working definition of queer activism to guide this process.
{"title":"Where the personal is political","authors":"Mike Baynham, Bahiru Shewaye, Kayode Gomes","doi":"10.1558/genl.22685","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.22685","url":null,"abstract":"The Queer Asylum Stories project collected interviews with people who had successfully gained asylum based on their sexuality. The focus of this article is on life stories leading up to and triggering the decision to seek asylum, and the processes of formation of the interviewees’ queer subjectivity. The discussion draws on the three related constructs of interpellation, ideological becoming and habitus, and considers the role of queer activism, understood as a dimension of queer habitus as theorised in the foundational work of Didier Eribon. Finding that the term ‘activism’ is widely used but infrequently defined, the article suggests that activism in general, and queer activism in particular, need to be defined explicitly and explored in order to gain a deeper understanding of what is involved. It provides a working definition of queer activism to guide this process.","PeriodicalId":44706,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Language","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139624196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：