1,720,979 research outputs found
"I Wanna Be a Toy" : Self-sexualisation in gender-variant Twitter users' biographies
Full text linkThe paradigmatic transgender woman is often negatively oversexualised, pornographised and fetishised in mainstream conceptualisations and discourses. However, self-sexualisation by transgender individuals is often portrayed as a (sex-)positive social phenomenon. Little research has been conducted that analyses the self-sexualisation strategies of the multiple instantiations of gender-variant identity, including transmasculine and non-binary social actors. This paper uses a corpus-informed socio-cognitive approach to critical discourse studies to identify differences between the self-sexualisation strategies and underpinning cognitive models of different gender-variant user-groups on Twitter. 2,565 users are coded into five categories: (1) transfeminine; (2) transmasculine; (3) transsexual; (4) transvestite; (5) non-binary. Findings show that transvestite- and transsexual-identifying users most closely fit the pornographised and fetishised conceptualisation, whilst non-binary users are the least self-sexualising user-group
“Ties that bind”: The continued conflation of sex, sexuality and gender
No full textFew in the humanities and social sciences will doubt the long-standing historical conflation of sex, sexuality and gender both within and without academia. Despite research and socio-political movements aiming for the contrary, it continues even now. This paper discusses the ongoing conflation between these interrelated but independent social categories in current linguistic research, including how it can serve to reflect and reinforce socio-political antagonism outside of academia. I propose two potential directions of travel: (1) welcoming ideological pluralism between scholars on the primacy of either sex, gender or sexuality; and (2) horizontally disaggregating the three categories. I argue that engaging with both strategies in tandem serves to benefit researchers, participants and the public. The former encourages trust in academic research during a time wherein that trust is waning. The latter enables an analytical distinction between sex, gender, and sexuality in linguistic research, whilst continuing to acknowledge their interrelatedness. Implemented together, they will allow researchers to embed research in the 21st century, which entails pluralistic and competing socio-political activism between equally deserving groups
How to conduct ethical research with marginalised populations in online contexts
No full textThis guide offers insight into the ethical considerations for engaging in research with and about marginalised populations in online contexts. Focusing primarily on research with transgender populations online as examples of how this works, the guide includes core considerations throughout the research process, including a project’s purpose, working with data, and sharing findings. Far from dictating what must be done to guarantee ethical research in these contexts, this guide introduces key questions (and potential answers) that should be considered when engaging in such research. Ultimately, in prioritising the fundamental impetus to maximise benefit and minimise potential harm, the guide encourages ongoing critical reflexivity in each research design, implementation, and dissemination.<br/
Corpus linguistics and political economy analysis
No full textCorpus linguistic theory and methods have been applied in many domains, including analyses of political economy. This entry explores coincidences of corpus linguistics and political economy analyses, including specific approaches to cultural political economy (CPE) and political economy analysis (PEA). It therefore focuses on how corpus linguistics and political economy have so far been integrated both theoretically and methodologically, including implicit and explicit integrations, before considering how they may continue to be meaningfully integrated in the future
‘Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps?)’: Critiquing representations of women throughout the 1980s in Fangoria magazine
No full textCritiquing representations of women, their bodies and their sexuality is an established tradition in horror studies. Indeed, the 1980s is a particularly important era for analysing the (mis)representation of women in horror. Such critiques are primarily based on analyses of the woman-on-screen as seen through the gaze of characters, creators and imagined audiences. This article takes an altogether different perspective, focusing instead on discursive representations of women, their bodies and sexuality in the words of actors, creators, critics, fans and journalists in Fangoria magazine throughout the 1980s. This retrospective insight highlights the legacy of women’s place in horror and its implications for the relationship between popular culture(s) and contemporary political economies of gender in/equality
"Misery Business?" : The contribution of corpus-driven critical discourse analysis to understanding gender-variant Twitter users' experiences of employment
Full text linkThis contribution is a corpus-based analysis of gender-variant discourse on Twitter, exploring users’ strategies for organizing their experience and understanding of employment. The data are two specialized corpora: (1) the biographies of each of 2,881 self-identifying gender-variant users; (2) c.4,000,000 tweets posted by those users. The corpora are analyzed using a sociocognitive approach to discourse analysis (Van Dijk, 2009, 2015, 2017). The biographies are used to determine the demographic make-up of the sample. An analysis of the corpus of users’ tweets will explore, and attempt to explain, the activated discourses around aspects of employment (i.e. representations of the self-as-employee, co-worker relationships, employers, and experiences in employment). In considering the contribution linguistics can make in understanding gender-variant people’s experiences of employment, the focus of this research is three-fold: (1) I consider the role of gender-variant users’ cognitive organization of employment experience in either perpetuating or challenging marginalization in the workplace; (2) I consider the validity and reliability of a corpus-driven analysis in comparison to the credibility and validity of previous studies on the employment experiences of gender-variant people; (3) I consider the logical and ethical implications of considering only the roles of employers, policymakers, and co-workers in remedying marginalization in the workplace
How to select participants from LGBTQIA+ and trans communities using social media
No full textIn this guide, I discuss some of the ethical and methodological considerations of recruiting LGBTQIA+ research participants via social media. Of course, recruiting research participants from historically marginalized and minoritized communities always requires serious consideration. However, this is perhaps even more true when seeking to recruit participants via today’s increasingly extreme social mediascape, which continues to platform homophobic, transphobic, and queerphobic content. These conditions may well contribute to social media users’ inability or unwillingness to be identifiably LGBTQIA+ in online spaces, giving rise to both ethical and methodological considerations in our research. From researcher positionality to picking the right platform(s), and from carefully crafted language to dealing with rejection, I offer in this guide some practical advice for you to reflect on in the development and design of social media recruitment methods.<br/
How to Research Gender Online
No full textThis guide offers insight into some of the salient considerations for researching gender online. Intended as a broad overview, the guide considers both planning (i.e., research design) and doing (i.e., data collection and analysing) research on gender in online contexts. The guide offers specific suggestions and guidance for: (1) disambiguating gender from other related concepts in research questions; (2) identifying gender in online data collection methods; and (3) analysing and categorising gender when presenting research findings. With a focus on both challenges and opportunities, this guide acts as an initial toolkit for social scientists considering researching gender in online contexts.<br/
“Erase/Rewind”: How transgender Twitter discourses challenge and (re)politicise lesbian identities
Full text linkCompeting views on the in/compatibility of transgender status and lesbian identity is a source of conflict in the ongoing antagonism over transgender recognition. Many individuals with different transgender identities might lay claim to lesbian identity or lesbian discourse(s), more generally. However, this inclusion has been disputed in some circles insofar as it is seen to challenge or contradict characteristics of lesbianism. This paper explores how transgender discourses might challenge and (re)politicize lesbianism and lesbian identities. Given that social media platforms concentrate minority communities in one space and can serve to exacerbate antagonism over identities, I focus in this paper specifically on the Twitter context. This paper uses corpus-informed critical discourse studies to explore how cognitive models of lesbianism are articulated in transgender Twitter discourse/s. Findings indicate that transgender Twitter users (re)articulate socio-historical narratives in lesbian discourse/s. At the same time, however, they also challenge and (re)politicize the essentialism of sex and gender in relation to lesbian identity and social practice. Hence, transgender Twitter discourse/s reflect potential explanations for contesting trans-inclusion in lesbianism, which may serve to reinforce trans-exclusionary claims for retaining lesbianism’s uniqueness as a female space and experience
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