A Fag by Any Other Name

This paper examines concerns over self-image during conversations about same-gender sexuality -- ranging from ‘fag jokes’ to assertions of the rights of lesbians and gays -- among low-income Brazilians in the southern city of Porto Alegre. Applying sociolinguistic insights to the analysis of four ethnographic case studies collected in 2002-03, I consider how speakers referencing non-normative forms of sexual desire, identity and practice draw from a range of available discourses of gender and sexuality -- including those of machismo, science and medicine, and of sexual rights -- and how negotiation between these discourses becomes subject to gendered concerns about self-image. Within this purview, I also examine inter-personal dynamics and discursive proficiencies which encourage the perception that a speaker might be homophobic or anti-gay, and the rhetorical steps taken to minimize this likelihood. Implications for understandings of language, same-gender sexuality, and homophobia are addressed

Aesthetics · Ethnography · Heteronormativity · Human sexuality · Identity (music · Linguistics · Negotiation · Normative · Perception · Political science · Rhetorical question · Sexual identity · Social science · Sociology · Subject (documents · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Gender Studies in Language · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Law · Multilingual Education and Policy · Psychology · Social Psychology

• GoodGay Buddiesfor Lifetime

  Wei, Wei Wei•Journal of Homosexuality•2017

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