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 • e.g. The Pink Paper; The Gay Times • Manner of Identity Construction • Dating ad context • Discursive devices • Intertextuality • Metaphor • Cultural context

7. Theoretical Assumptions “Our sense of ourselves is…something constructed, not pregiven, and our gender identities are not fixed. We take up positions in our enactment of discourse practices so…our sense of self is not fixed and static” (Talbot 2010: 110) • 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 regard homosexuality as an identity that deviates from the heteronormative • Lesbianism as an erotic spectacle for men • Thorne and Coupland recognise this • Still position gay males and lesbians as deviant • Heterosexual masculinity

10. Difference Model • Difference in linguistic practices between men and women as linguistic groups • Reinforces stereotypes and inequality • Thorne and Coupland (1998) state that • Gay male and lesbian are not antonyms, but essentially they follow this train of thought • Heteronormative perspective used in the qualitative analysis of the advertisements

11. Methodology

12. How was data collected? • Adverts were taken • Between December 1995 and February 1996 • From UK publications • e.g. The Pink Paper; The Gay Times

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 • Gay male 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 adaptation of • Thorne and Coupland’s (1998) Study to South Africa • Focus on • Promiscuity in • Lesbian sexual identity creation

30. Articulation of the Proposed Study in Relation to Thorne and Coupland (1998) • Online-dating advertisements • Discursive devices • e.g. diction, style, figurative language • English websites • Subjects are likely to be bilingual and multicultural • Rudwick, Nkomo & Shange (2006) found that multiculturalism and bilingualism have • An association with more fluid and less rigid ideas about appropriate behaviour and language

31. Aims – Research Question • Research Question • Articulation of promiscuity in the climate of post-AIDS culture (Leap, 1996, as cited in Thorne & Coupland, 1998), and the • Self-commodification of a lesbian identity • pro·mis·cu·ousadj.1. Having casual sexual relations frequently with different partners; indiscriminate in the choice of sexual partners. • 2. Lacking standards of selection; indiscriminate. • 3. Casual; random • Source: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/promiscuous

32. Definitions • Self-commodification • Sex • Sexuality • Sexual identity • (Talbot, 2010)

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)

34. Problems with the Research Question • Thorne and Coupland (1998) used self-report questionnaires to define the subjects of their study as self-identified • Due to the nature of the websites • On one’s profile there is the option of • Selecting one of the socially defined identity categories • e.g. lesbian, bisexual • This can be limiting • However, it is the marker of self-definition used in this study • 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. LGBTTQIA) • Few previous studies focused on lesbian sexual identity construction with a focus on sex, where the focus has been more on • Heterosexual men and women, and • Homosexual men (reference studies that have studied lesbians exclusively) • Non-sex related articulations of lesbian identity

36. South African Context • Apartheid • Criminalisation of homosexuality (Sanders, 1997) • 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 (Gibson, 2010) • 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 (Sanders, 1997) • 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 • Part of this study • What is the effect of this on 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 deVosthat: • The House of Traditional Leaders • A proposal to the National Assembly to amend section 9 of the Constitution • Remove sexual orientation provisions (deVos, 2012, http://constitutionallyspeaking.co.za/)

39. Scope of the Study • Purpose of dating advertisements (Thorne & Coupland, 1998) • Find a companion with certain characteristics • Casual or serious • Nature of sex with that companion • Promiscuity • Commodify/market oneself to the ‘consumer/other’, specifically in terms of • Sex

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) • ‘Queer’ lesbians • Decouple same-sex practices from • A lesbian identity • Society’s present epistemological framework

41. Scope of the Study • Consider the AIDS pandemic (Leap, 1996, as cited in Thorne & Coupland, 1998) • How do lesbians self-identify with the societal problem of HIV/AIDS? • Suggested by Thorne and Coupland (1998) that in gay men who voice their physical health, in order to promote an HIV-negative status - this resulted in • Decreased promiscuity, such as a decrease in • Casual sex; multiple partners –> safer sex practices

42. Scope of the Study • Queer Theory will be utilised as the research framework, and • In terms of promiscuity • Self-commodification; HIV/AIDS • Only risk-practices, but in Thorne and Coupland’s (1998) study • The gay males studied, were found to identify as physically healthy in order to • Project an HIV-negative status • Does AIDS have such an effect on the articulation of promiscuity within the lesbian identity?

43. Adequacy of the Original Study’s Theoretical Paradigm to the Present Epistemological Context • Thorne and Coupland (1998) • Poststructuralist framework • Difference model

44. Adequacy of the Original Study’s Theoretical Paradigm to the Present Epistemological Context • 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

45. 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 • Sexuality(practice), and • Sexual identity (identity) are • Mutually exclusive

46. Prospective Study’s Epistemological Framework • 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 by means of alignment to the current socio-political framework “[q]ueer is by definition whatever is at odds with the normal, the legitimate, the dominant. There is nothing in particular to which it necessarily refers. It is an identity without essence” (Halperin ,1995, p. 61-62)

47. Queer Theory • Decoupling identity from practice • i.e. how lesbians form their own identity through the self-commodification • Seen in online dating ads • NOT just the practice of a woman seeking another woman • HIV/AIDS • Queer approach • No such thing as risk-groups – only risk-practices • The effect of HIV/AIDS on articulations of promiscuity

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

49. Reinforce the Use of Queer Theory • Thus, from the discourse analysis gain an understanding of what the • Sexual identity of self-identified lesbians looks like in South Africa • There is a need for categorisation within the study – even though we recognise the diversity of sexuality and sexual identity

50. Methodology • Dating advertisements on websites for • Women-seeking-women • Small-scale study • 100 separate advertisements from different self-defined lesbian websites • Complex nature of gender and sexuality • For this study we will take • Women-seeking-women to mean • Self-identified lesbians