Public and private discourses of lesbians: exploring the discourses surrounding lesbians in the spoken BNC2014 and the British press in 2017

Heritage, Frazer (2022) Public and private discourses of lesbians: exploring the discourses surrounding lesbians in the spoken BNC2014 and the British press in 2017. Journal of Corpora and Discourse Studies, 5 (1). pp. 61-89. ISSN 2515-0251

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Abstract

This paper explores the language used to discuss lesbians in both informal spoken British English and British written news media. The research draws on two data sources: the Spoken BNC2014 and a specialised corpus of 1.2 million words from newspapers written between January 2017 and December 2017 inclusive. Discourses (re) produced in both informal conversations and the mass media are ways of sustaining and maintaining ideological stances towards groups marginalised due to their sexuality (see Baker, 2014; Gupta, 2016). In this paper, I argue that the discourses surrounding lesbians found within both corpora are problematic and archaic. I discuss two prominent discourses in spoken British English (that lesbians are typically seen as masculine, which in turn is judged negatively, and that lesbianism is a choice), two prominent discourses in written British English (that lesbians are a threat to children and that lesbianism is a marked identity which is delegitimised), and one discourse which overlaps across both corpora (that all gender, sexual, and romantic minorities are a homogenised group). The discourses in both corpora appear to be damaging to how lesbians are viewed in general society and tend to mask underlying homophobic ideologies.

Item Type: Article
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.18573/jcads.18
Dates:
DateEvent
13 March 2020Accepted
27 September 2022Published Online
Uncontrolled Keywords: Gender and Sexuality; Lesbians; Queer Linguistics; Representation; Media Discourse; British English
Subjects: CAH00 - multidisciplinary > CAH00-00 - multidisciplinary > CAH00-00-00 - multidisciplinary
CAH15 - social sciences > CAH15-01 - sociology, social policy and anthropology > CAH15-01-01 - social sciences (non-specific)
CAH15 - social sciences > CAH15-01 - sociology, social policy and anthropology > CAH15-01-02 - sociology
CAH19 - language and area studies > CAH19-01 - English studies > CAH19-01-02 - English language
CAH19 - language and area studies > CAH19-01 - English studies > CAH19-01-07 - linguistics
CAH24 - media, journalism and communications > CAH24-01 - media, journalism and communications > CAH24-01-05 - media studies
Divisions: Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences > Dept. Criminology and Sociology
Depositing User: Frazer Heritage
Date Deposited: 27 Sep 2022 15:42
Last Modified: 27 Sep 2022 15:42
URI: https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/13617

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