sexuality

• heteronormativity and language use


  -sums up the idea that its natural or normal to be heterosexual

  -led to negative stereotypes and homophobic discourse

  -linguistic derogation and pejoration of words such as 'gay' and 'queer' used as insults

  assumptions that all LGBTQ+ speak in the same way
• simone de beauvoir- the second sex


  not a linguist but her ideas challenged social views on gender significantly

  'society being codified by man, decrees that women is inferior: she can do away with this inferiority only by destroying the males superiority'
• judith butler- gender trouble


  -she said that people reiterate performances of gender that conform to a gender norm throughout their lives

  -'gender is always a doing, though not a doing by a subject who might be said to pre-exist the deed'

  -for example when a baby is born the doctor announces 'ITS a boy!' this means the babies identity has been constructed for them by society already.
• deborah cameron

  • Said that difference and dominance focused on a ‘mainstream prototype of femininity or masculinity’ and those they studied were usually ‘white, straight, middle class and monolingual’.​
  • that there’s no such thing as a generic man or woman, that masculinities and femininities come in ‘multiple varieties’ and interlinked with other parts of a person’s identity-age, ethnicity, class, occupation etc. ​
• deborah cameron

  • Culture and place impact language. Gave the example of where homosexuality is associated with gender-crossing, gay people might use non-standard gender-marking to display their sexual identity: feminine gendered pronouns and adjectives to identify themselves. But this might be absent in places where gender and sexuality are seen as separate. ​
  • Gave the example of Margaret Thatcher, who became the UK’s first female prime minister in 1979, who had a ‘linguistic makeover’ by lowering the pitch of her voice and slowing delivery to sound more authoritative.
• falsetto


  a higher vocal register- adopted by gay men
• vocal fry


  lowest vocal register, characterised by rough or creaking sounds

  does not harm vocal chords
• bruce rodgers- the queens vernacular

  • A dictionary of gay language in America in the 1950s-70s, over 7,000 entries​
  • Ethnography and participant observation​
  • Years of interviews with 100s of people in bars, dance halls, street corners etc. so charts spoken not written language​
  • doff the tiara- to be gay
  • metaphoric language
• lavender language - bill leap

  • Studies confirmed that male American English speaker – recognised as gay – by speech rates.​
  • ‘Gay lisp’​
  • Differences between lesbians and straight women are "even more subtle" than differences between gay and straight men. ​
  • In one English-language experiment, listeners were unable to identify female speakers as either lesbian or straight based solely on voice. ​
  • At the same time, lesbian speech studies have long been neglected, making introductory research difficult.
• lavender language - the queer way to speak

  • Used in the 20s and 30s, and still evidenced today​
  • Associated with women’s power and power in the West​ ​
  • leap picked the term ‘lavender’ because it is associated with the occult and mysticism with women’s power in Africa. ​
  • He is currently studying ‘Harlmese’ – rich and dynamic queer presence and manner of speaking, influenced gay language today. ​
  • Forming an identity; been around a while. ​
  • ‘She-ing’ comes from Polari, and is evident in LL.
• lavender language- the queer way to speak- examples

  • ‘hot’​
  • ‘hunk’​
  • A lot of the language has come from our understanding of Polari.​
  • ‘She-ing’ is an academic term that refers to the linguistic practice of feminising people and objects.
• polari


  gay slang language
• polari

  Around in the 20th century until the 70s, especially in the 1940s and 50s. ​

  ​Mostly used by and associated with gay men in big cities like London​

  A slang form which emerged due to the legal and social judgement and condemnation of homosexuality, and to therefore avoid being imprisoned.​

  Parts of Polari had been used in the 1700s and 1800s as a secret language the homeless, performers, sailors and ‘gypsies’ used
• polari

  • Polari was a secret language ‘passed on via word of mouth and, as a result, many versions were created at the same time.’​
  • Most speakers would have known a small core vocabulary of words for clothes, types of people, adjectives to show approval (or not), sexual acts and everyday objects – but there was also a ‘fringe’ vocabulary containing many words known only to a few. ​
  • Versions of spelling, pronunciation and meaning changed ​​
  • Polari speakers developed their language as a result of mingling with these transient communities.​
  • Polari could be seen as a form of ‘anti-language’
• paul baker

  • Explores the changes in attitudes and approaches from Jesperson’s deficit study in ‘22,
  • Said that the Dominance model positions women as ‘victims’ of male power, so accepting this model has political consequences.​
  • Said that there is a ‘double-bind’ , women leaders who act or speak in stereotypically feminine ways are seen as weak, but if they act in ‘masculine’ ways they’re seen as ‘acting inappropriately’. ​
  • Talks about the ‘performativity’ of gender as a construct
• paul baker

  ‘secret’ languages of gay subcultures- 20th century, linguistic responses to this as well as the context of the participants being alienated, Commented that some researchers in 70s and 80s assumed there was a universal gay identity​

  eg. Hayes referred to GaySpeak, said that gay men change their language depending on whether it was a secret, social or radical-activist setting. ​

  Equates binary of male/female language with heterosexual/homosexual language- and argues that defining by these binaries is too simplistic and not accurate as people have complex and changing identities.