Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 182

Thematic Session (Papers belonging to this Thematic Session)

Gender ideologies in public discourses

Authors: Kang, Agnes; Chen, Katherine Hoi Ying
Submitted by: Chen, Katherine Hoi Ying (The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong S.A.R. (China))

Sociolinguists and linguistic anthropologists have been studying the relationship between social action and linguistic ideologies. This session aims at investigating such relationship with respect to gender ideologies in public discourses (Philips 2003, McConnell-Ginet 2011). We consider public discourses as a site for the display, negotiation, challenging, and/or (re-)construction of gender ideologies. By “public discourses”, we mean both discourses that take place in public settings and discourses that are accessible to general audiences in media and new media alike.

Papers can take a variety of perspectives and seek to understand the relationships between gender ideologies and public discourses. We are interested particularly in studies that are linguistic data-driven and seek to combine analysis of micro-and macro-level issues and questions. As “all communication involves acts of stance, in which speakers take up positions vis-à-vis the expressive, referential, interactional, and social implications of their speech” (Jaffe 2009), we see stance and stancetaking of gender in the public space as a theoretical and methodological gateway to understanding how gender ideologies mediate with language and social actions.

We would particularly welcome contributions that engage in discussing one or more of the following:

§ Stance and stance-taking in constructing/negotiating gender identities

§ Public displays and discursive practices of masculinity/femininity/sexuality

§ Discursive practices and tropes about language, usage, and speakers in relation to gender ideologies

§ Gender, modernity and cosmopolitanism

§ Media and New Media (particularly interactive social media as a site for gender ideologies)

This panel aims to bring together papers with a unified theme for journal publication. Accepted authors are expected to submit a full conference paper by mid-July, 2012 for circulation among panel members.

Key References

Jaffe, Alexandra (2009) Stance: sociolinguistic perspectives. OUP

McConnell-Ginet, Sally (2011) Gender, Sexuality, and Meaning: Linguistic Practice and Politics. OUP

Philips, Susan (2003) The power of gender ideologies in discourse. In The handbook of language and gender. By Janet Holmes, Miriam Meyerhoff. Wiley-Blackwell.

Silverstein, Michael (1985). Language and the culture of gender: at the intersection of structure, usage and ideology. In E. Mertz and R. J. Parmentier (eds.), Semiotic Mediation, 219-59. Orlando: Academic Press.

Walton, Shana and Alexandra Jaffe (2011) “Stuff White People Like”: Stance, Class, Race and Internet Commentary. In in Digital Discourse edited by Crispin Thurlow and Kristine Mroczek. OUP

Sociolinguistics Symposium 19

Programme: accepted abstracts

Gender ideologies in public discourses