Incomprehensible language? Language, ethnicity and heterosexual masculinity in a Swedish school
Co-authored with Rickard Jonsson, Gender & Language 2011, 5 (2): 239-266
In the Swedish context, the discursive regime about linguistic phenomena is charac- terized by a ‘matrix of... more In the Swedish context, the discursive regime about linguistic phenomena is charac- terized by a ‘matrix of intelligibility’ (Butler 1999 [1990]) that promotes images of linguistic practices among adolescents in the suburbs not only as deviant and incomprehensible, but also as essentialized traits of ethnic Otherness, social and educational problems and, more recently, of an aggressive masculinity embodied in sexist and homophobic behaviour. Unlike dominant media representations which depict such linguistic practices as unintelligible as well as inherently sexist and homophobic, the aim of the present article is to take a queer stance and illustrate how ethnic insults, gay innuendos and misogynist talk are meaningful in the sense that they constitute a rich pool of interactional resources that allow the young men in our study to actively partake in the negotiation of a ‘local masculine order’ (Evaldsson 2005) in which positions of power, authority and solidarity are enacted and/or contested.
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Gender & Language 2011, 5 (2): 175-186
This special issue of Gender & Language aims at re-rethinking the linguistic/discursive study of masculinities in... more This special issue of Gender & Language aims at re-rethinking the linguistic/discursive study of masculinities in the light of recent theoretical debates that have arisen in conjunction with the not always uncontroversial volume Language and Sexuality (Cameron and Kulick 2003a). More specifically, the contributions to the special issue take masculinities as a case in point and interrogate whether, and if so, how Cameron and Kulick's theoretical constructs can be put to work in a range of empirical linguistic/discursive investigations.
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