A Summary and Adaptation of a Sociolinguistic Study to the South African Context

1. A Summary and Adaptation of a Sociolinguistic Study to the South African Context

2. Group Members • Lara Bloch • Megan Edwards • Nicola Coundourakis • Bianca Cassell

3. Original Study Articulations of Same-sex desire: Lesbian and gay male dating advertisements Thorne and Coupland (1998)

4. Summary of Thorne and Coupland (1998)

5. General Summary and Theoretical Assumptions

6. Gist of the Study • Study conducted in 1998 • Source • UK dating ads in magazines • Manner of Identity Construction • Dating ad context • Discursive devices • Intertextuality • Metaphor • Cultural context

7. Theoretical Assumptions • Poststructuralist paradigm • Difference Model

8. Poststructuralist Paradigm • Constructs sexuality and sexual identity through • Linguistic devices • Commodification of the advertiser • Subversion of cultural conventions

9. Poststructuralist Paradigm • Dominant social discourses regarding homosexuality as an identity • Lesbianism as a spectacle for men • Heterosexual masculinity

10. Elements of Dominance?? Difference Model • Heterosexuality and heterosexual social norms used to judge the ads • In contrast to the aims of the study • Difference in linguistic practices between the two groups • Reinforces stereotypes and inequality

11. Methodology

12. How was data collected? • Adverts were taken • Between December 1995 and February 1996 • From UK publications.

13. How much data? • 200 dating adverts • Split evenly between gay men and lesbians

14. Qualitative or Quantitative? • Both! • Qualitative • The data is text that was analysed in-depth using content analysis • Quantitative as the data • Statistical data • Frequency of self-mentioned attributes • Tabulated into separate tables • Gay and lesbian

15. Pros versus Cons: Qualitative Pros Cons Findings cannot be extended to wider populations Researcher bias is a problem Discursive analysis is subjective and thus difficult to replicate • One is able to have an in-depth examination • One is not confined to rigidly defined variables

16. Pros versus Cons: Quantitative Pros Cons Limited ability of probing questions Doesn’t reveal understanding of a topic Expensive • Data can be collected and analysed relatively quickly • Allows for generalisation beyond participant group • Objective, controlled and systematic

17. Ethical Implications • Using peoples’ adverts without their • Informed consent • Intruding on their privacy, without subjects being able to justify the content of their adverts.

18. Results

19. Gay men and lesbians, and • Shown to perform their sexuality through dating adverts • Post-AIDS culture seen in a focus on physical health, and thus HIV negative status • However, how they can express their • Sexuality is limited, as they are • Performing their sexuality within the constraints of dating adverts and societal constraints

20. Constraints • Some homosexuals appear to conform • Others subvert the norm by using certain linguistic strategies • With different outcomes • Trends were found, for example • Gay *male advertisers • Putting more emphasis on physical characteristics than lesbians

21. Cultural Symbols • Gay male and lesbian advertisers were found to use cultural symbols • Movies and celebrities in order to create identities which subverted the social norms • As well as to create identities that were congruent with norms and sub-cultures within the homosexual community

22. Lesbian advertisers’ symbols • Movies used by women served to • Subvert heteronormative ideas of lesbian sex for male consumption • As well as to create a specific lesbian identity by referring to a particular film • Associated with power, control and eroticism.

23. Gay male advertisers’ symbols • Male advertisers • Used cultural references to • Create their own gendered and sexuality identities • By identifying with a person who is a symbol of gay identity, the advertiser can place himself within a certain • Sub-section of gay male culture, and thus • Attract a similar respondent

24. Gay male advertisers’ symbols • Advertisers were also found to use • Societal/cultural norms and values regarding homosexuality • To create identities which may conform to these norms • But may also subvert them

25. Poetic Style Adverts • The gay and lesbian subjects of this study employed • Metaphors and images in order to create identities by associated to certain concepts • Language • Used to subvert conventions as well as to create identities that may not be • Congruent with original allusions to the symbol

26. Gay male advertisers found to use • Traditionally heterosexual descriptions in order to articulate their identities • Using the traditional male stereotype to create an identity manipulates existing norms, and in this case • Hyper sexualisation of one’s identity • By using the objectified heterosexual male as the object of desire within a gay male dating advert

27. Let’s Talk About Sex A lesbian commodification of sexuality and sexual identity in Internet Dating Advertisements

28. Illustration of an Application of Thorne and Coupland’s Study in a South African Context

29. Articulation of the Proposed Study in Relation to Thorne and Coupland (1998) • Small-scale adaption • Thorne and Coupland’s Study to South Africa • Focus on lesbian sexual identity creation through • Online-dating advertisements • Discursive devices (is that it?)

30. Articulation of the Proposed Study in Relation to Thorne and Coupland (1998) • Instead of magazine and newspaper dating adverts of gay men and lesbians • Compared to gay men • Change in terminology from ‘gay males (biological)’ to ‘gay men (gendered identity)’ (reference)

31. Aims – Research Question • Research Question • Articulation of promiscuity, and the • Self-commodification of a lesbian identity • On online dating advertisements • Discursive devices in dating advertisements • English websites • Likely to be bilingual and multicultural (reference; isiTsotsi article)

32. Definitions • Promiscuity • Self-commodification • Sex • Sexuality • Sexual identity

33. Problems with the Research Question • Studying lesbian dating websites, but • Are they lesbians or • Are they just women using the • Available resources for self-commodification that • Represent their sexual practice or identity to some degree (Milani, in press) • Is the practice of seeking another woman • A reflection of a lesbian identity ?

34. Problems with the Research Question • Due to misconceptions by the subjects regarding terminology – we consider the women-seeking-women to be self-identified lesbians (ask Nix – SELF-REPORT QUESTIONNAIRES!!!!!) • Further research • Differentiate women involved in same-sex practices, from those who identify as lesbian

35. Reason for Focusing on Lesbians • As much as we acknowledge a diverse range of • Sexualities, and • Sexual identities • A Lesbian sexual identity is an identity out of the many (e.g. LGBTQIA) • Very few previous studies have focused on lesbian sexual identity construction, where the focus has been more on • Heterosexual men and women, and • Homosexual men (reference studies that have studied lesbians exclusively)

36. South African Context • Apartheid • Criminalisation of homosexuality (reference) • Maximum sentence of 7 year imprisonment • Deter homosexual community events, and • Political activists • Post-Apartheid • Equality clause – explicitly mentions sexual orientation and gender, sex, pregnancy and marital status (among others) along with other legislation (reference) • Thus, women’s rights have received a political focus since the Constitution of 1996

37. South African Context • Post-Apartheid (contd.) • First nation in the world in 1996 to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation (reference) • Homosexual marriage – November 2006 • In the Civil Union Act 17 of 2006 • This clause led to the possibility of LGBTQIA rights being advocated for in legislation and other areas of society • Consideration • Lesbian self-commodification of their identity may be easier to publicly ‘advertise’

38. South African Context • Present Situation • On the 3rd of May, 2012, it was reported by Prof. Pierre deVos that the • House of Traditional Leaders • Proposal to the National Assembly to amend section 9 of the Constitution to • Remove sexual orientation provisions REFERENCE

39. Scope of the Study • (Reference) Purpose of dating advertisements • Find a companion with certain characteristics • Short- or long-term • Commodify/market oneself to the ‘consumer/other’

40. Scope of the Study • Dating advertisements are rich and meaningful in terms of their content (Thorne & Coupland, 1998) • Adherence and Deviance from the normative • Style • Discourse • e.g. move away from the fetishisation of lesbians as the object of the ‘voyeuristic male gaze’ (Thorne & Coupland, 1998, p. 242) • AIDS pandemic (Leap, 1996, as cited in Thorne & Coupland, 1998) • Do lesbians self-identify with the portrayal of • Health and its relation to • HIV-negative status

41. Scope of the Study • Queer Theory will be utilised as the research framework • Only risk-practices in queer theory, but in Thorne and Coupland’s (1998) study was found to be important to the self-commodified gay male identity (ask Nix)

42. Adequacy of the Original Study’s Theoretical Paradigm to the Present Epistemological Context • Thorne and Coupland (1998) • Poststructuralist framework • Difference model • The merits of this • Poststructuralism • Language is not a static mirror of society • Language itself creates social reality (Cameron, 1997) • Difference • In South Africa there is still merit to this because many African cultures operate along gender lines, but • Queer theory is a better approach

43. Adequacy of the Original Study’s Theoretical Paradigm to the Present Epistemological Context • Thorne and Coupland’s (1998) definitions of • Sexuality and sexual identity • Are not the same as the differentiated • Clearly defined queer definitions of them • Practice (sexuality), and • Identity (sexual identity) are • Mutually exclusive

44. Adequacy of the Original Study’s Theoretical Paradigm to the Present Epistemological Context • For the Prospective Study • Queer theory • Lesbian identity as the • Object of inquiry, and • The knowledge about lesbians • Investigates how the norms become so, and • How others get to be considered deviant • Considered in the qualitative discourse analysis (ask Nix)

45. Adequacy of the Original Study’s Theoretical Paradigm to the Present Epistemological Context • Decoupling identity from practice • i.e. how lesbians form their identity in their self-commodification in dating ads • NOT just the practice of a woman seeking another woman • AIDS • No such thing as risk-groups – only risk-practices • But does the discourse represent a notion of societally imposed “risk-group”, as with gay men in Thorne and Coupland (1998)?

46. Reinforce the Use of Queer Theory • Why queer theory is useful in South Africa • To uncouple the societally imposed categories of lesbianism • From sex and sexuality • Investigating the ties between • Gender (woman) • Sex (female), and • Sexuality (practices)

47. Reinforce the Use of Queer Theory • Thus, from the discourse analysis gain an understanding of what the • Sexual identity of women-seeking-women looks (‘lesbian’ identity) like in South Africa • Rather than imposing pre-conceived categories

48. Methodology • Dating advertisements on websites for • Females-seeking-females • Small-scale study • 100 separate advertisements from 3 different lesbian websites • Complex nature of gender and sexuality • For this study we will take • Females-seeking-females to mean • Self-identified lesbians

49. What Kind of Data? • Written data • Advertisements posted on the internet • www.mambagirl.co.za • www.gaydates.co.za • Lesbian section

50. When? • Between March 2010 and March 2012 • Non-experimental – longitudinal study (reference) • Why • Factor in temporal changes • Contemporary with current socio-political atmosphere