Linguistic Research and Queer Identities: Performance and Perception

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Linguistic Research and Queer IdentitiesPerforma
nce and Perception

• The past two decades have witnessed a diversity
  of research aimed at examining the production,
  perceptions, and interpretations of stylized
  speech ascribed to the homosexual identity(?).
  Responses to this research include criticism of
  methodological approaches as well as the
  recognition that such linguistic styles may be
  reflective of socially contextual identities. In
  this workshop we will examine current scholarship
  in order to better understand the challenges,
  implications, and applications of such research.
  Rather than a lecture, we will work together in
  order to draw on the knowledge, experiences, and
  opinions of participants. The objective of this
  workshop is to raise awareness about linguistic
  research with this population(?) and identify
  directions for future study.

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Linguistic Research and Queer IdentitiesPerforma
nce and Perception

• Lets examine the title Why did I choose these
  specific terms and what is implied in the
  choices?
• Queer Identity Performance
  Perception
• What do you already know about linguistic
  research with this specific population?
• Think of a specific study, real or hypothetical.
  What exactly is being researched?
• Why is this research important?
• Where did this all begin?

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QUEER

• Is there really such a thing as queer identity
  (or population)?
• Why QUEER?
• Homosexuality (is that term so easily defined?)
• What is a homosexual? How do we as researchers
  know the sexuality of our participants?
• Lesbian? Bisexual? Transgender? Gender Queer?
• What is sexuality?
• Behavior vs Identity vs Desire (vs Gender vs Sex)
• Nature vs Nurture (vs Choice)
• Interactions of all of the above?
• Is homosexuality an Identity Category like
  ethnicity or gender?
• Why or why not? What are the ramifications of
  your response?

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IDENTITY

• Identity
• Kulick and Cameron (Language and Sexuality, 2003)
  argue that all work on gay and lesbian language,
  even the most recent, has investigated the
  relationship between language and sexuality in
  terms of language and sexual identitythis
  concept of sexual identity by no means exhausts
  the range of feelings, sensations, knowledges and
  relations that compose sexuality. Indeed, an
  exclusive focus on identity greatly constrains
  the kinds of questions we can ask about
  sexuality.. Instead of leading us to inquiry, it
  compels us to circumscribe it, and to return
  again and again to predictable (and finally
  unresolvable) debates about things like whether
  or not there is such a thing as a gay
  community, who is in or outside that
  community, and who or what constitutes authentic
  instantiations of that community. Identity is
  doubtless one dimension of sexuality. However,
  limiting an examination of sexuality to sexual
  identity leaves unexamined everything that
  arguably makes sexuality sexuality namely,
  fantasy, repression, pleasure, fear and the
  unconscious.

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IDENTITY or DESIRE?

• Kulicks responseDESIRE!
• By having a clear sense of the limitations of
  the research on gay and lesbian language, and by
  pursuing some of its leads and building on some
  of its insights, future scholarship should be
  able to move away from the search for the
  linguistic correlates of contemporary identity
  categories and turn its attention to the ways in
  which language is bound up with and conveys
  desire (Gay and Lesbian Language, 2000).
• Ok, more on this later, but first

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PERFORMANCE

• Register/Dialect/Variety is there a Gay
  language?
• Linguistics of Contact (Pratt, 1987) how
  language operates across lines of social
  differentiation, indexing multiple identities and
  positions (in Kulick, 2000).
• Does language index sexuality, or does sexuality
  determine linguistic performance?
• Performativity - Livia and Hall (1997), locates
  gay and lesbian language in the semiotic
  processes through which it is produced and heard.
• Style is the ongoing construction of identity,
  built both directly though linguistic (and other)
  resources, and indirectly through the performance
  of social acts or activities, and the projection
  of emotive stances (Podesva, Roberts,
  Campbell-Kibler, 2001).
• E.g., An attorney changes his linguistic style in
  a specific social context.
• Why? In order to produce a specific performance
  or simply an unplanned response to context?
• Monolithic Styles
• Homo-genius speech community (Queen, 1997)
• Gay Mens English (Leap, 1996)
• Lesbian Language (Moonwomon, 1995)
• Gayspeak (Hayes, 1981)

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PERCEPTION

• Do all gay men and women have perceivable
  accents?
• Is perception accurate?
• What linguistic features do listeners actually
  attend to?
• Wide pitch range, prosody, frequency, release of
  final stops, swoopy intonation, breathiness,
  etc.
• Numerous studies in the last 20 years (all but
  one with men)
• Levon (2006) Sociolinguistic perceptions of
  sexuality recommends that one voice should be
  manipulated (various linguistic features) until a
  listener perceives it to be gay rather than gay
  and straight subjects reading text aloud in order
  to determine what people listen to when judging
  sexuality.
• Smyth, Jacobs, Rogers (2003) Various types of
  text read in polarized performances to examine
  perceptions of feminine vs. masculine gay vs.
  straight sounding and success of perception by
  gay and straight listeners generally successful
  perception but some caveats.
• Renn (2003) Childhood gender non-conformity
  (vs. sexual orientation) as successful predictor
  of gay-sounding speech.
• Podesva et al (2001) Gay vocal sounds may
  actually index a range of other constructs in
  addition to homosexuality so difficult to say
  what gay speech is, especially considering how a
  gay male can change his performance to suit
  social context.
• Crist (1997) Duration of onset consonant sounds
  successful predictor of sexuality in gay male
  stereotyped speech.
• Moonwomon (1997) LESBIANS! No such thing as
  lesbian voice! Listeners were unwilling to
  acknowledge lesbian presence.
• Gaudio (1994) Pitch not always an accurate
  predictor!

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So, in conclusion

• Fractal recursivity - Polarized extremes are
  repeated within groups
• Isolated readings by self-identified individuals
  (as straight or gay) for linguistic research are
  not necessarily representative of the vast
  variations of homo sexuality.
• Inconclusiveness of results some gays and
  lesbians in some circumstances do in fact sound
  gay (Jacobs, 1996). Listeners can in fact
  successfully recognize stereotypical speech
  styles. Beyond the stereotype however, weve got
  plenty of nothin. And we know very little about
  these issues cross-culturally, across time,
  across age-groups, with lesbians, with bisexuals,
  etc.
• Still important question applied
  cross-disciplines
• The Interacive effect of Homosexual speech and
  Sexual Orientation on the Stigmatization of Men
  Evidence for Expectancy Violation Theory (Gowen
  Britt, 2006).
• Specific features that are identified may index
  more than just sexuality this conclusion then
  weakens the validity of the research.

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And what was that about desire?

• So what exactly is desire according to Kulick and
  why is that going to make any difference?
• Shift the ground of inquiry once and for all
  from identity categories to culturally grounded
  semiotic practices desires for recognition, for
  intimacy, for erotic fulfillmentWhat are
  specific to different kinds of people are the
  precise things they desire and the manner in
  which particular desires are signaled in
  culturally codified ways (Kulick, 2000).
• Can one locate desire within the linguistic
  performances of those who practice specific
  behaviors? What might this look like?
• To conclude, lets consider Mike Tyson

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Gay or Straight?Do we actually know what he
desires?Do we actually know his physical sexual
behaviors?If you didnt know who he was, how
might the sound of his voice and his physical
expression inform your opinion about him?