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Gender and Language Gender and Language offers an international forum for language-based research on gender and sexualit

While there are many journals focused on gender and many journals focused on language, Gender and Language is currently the only academic journal to which scholars interested in the intersection of these dimensions can turn, whether as contributors looking for an audience sharing this focus or as readers seeking a reliable source for current discussions in the field. The journal showcases research

on the social analytics of gender in discourse domains that include institutions, media, politics and everyday interaction. As a point of departure, Gender and Language defines gender along two key dimensions. First, gender is a key element of social relationships that are often loosely linked to perceived differences between women and men. Gender relations are ideologically encoded in linguistic and symbolic representations, normative concepts, institutions, social practices, and social identities. Second, gender is a primary arena for articulating power in complex interaction with other dimensions of social difference and identity, such as class, race, ability, age, and sexuality. Gender is understood as multi-faceted, always changing, and often contested. The editors welcome discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of competing definitions of gender and of new analytical perspectives. Gender and Language was established in 2007 by the founding editors and Equinox Publishing, with the endorsement of the International Gender and Language Association (IGALA). Equinox and IGALA continue to enjoy a close partnership to further mutual goals of promoting cutting edge research on gender and language. Most critically, the journal aims to bring together a pan-global, interdisciplinary consortium of scholars whose work collectively challenges established disciplinary boundaries and incorporates multiple geopolitical axes of academic interpretation. To this end, the journal welcomes research employing a range of different approaches, among them applied linguistics, conversation analysis, corpus linguistics, critical discourse analysis, discursive psychology, ethnography of communication, interactional sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, linguistic landscapes, pragmatics, raciolinguistics, social semiotics, sociophonetics, stylistics, symbolic interactionism and variationist sociolinguistics. Gender and Language welcomes research articles that display originality with respect to theoretical framing, use of empirical materials, timeliness, and/or methodological orientation. The journal also invites critical essays, interviews, exchanges, colloquia, commentaries and responses, brief translations of key articles originally published in languages other than English, profiles of key figures, reviews of recently published books and special issues devoted to topics of relevance to the field.

Out now in our special issue on trans linguistics! Dozandri C. Mendoza analyzes one Miami drag queen's /s/ production to...
31/03/2025

Out now in our special issue on trans linguistics! Dozandri C. Mendoza analyzes one Miami drag queen's /s/ production to track the emergence of a retracted or fronted /s/ across moments in discourse referencing alignment, either with the aesthetic style of Wynwood drag related to the racialised chonga persona or with normative constructs of femininity. Mendoza argues that "centring Latinx gender non-conforming femmes in sociolinguistic inquiry allows for a more expansive trans-centred approach to linguistics, reorienting how linguists and other language scholars consider race and racialised personae in the enregisterment and performance of gendered styles."

Check out the article and special issue here: https://utppublishing.com/toc/gl/18/3

Out now! Xiaoyi Tang reviews the 2024 book The Class and Gender Politics of Chinese Online Discourse: Ambivalence, Socio...
28/02/2025

Out now! Xiaoyi Tang reviews the 2024 book The Class and Gender Politics of Chinese Online Discourse: Ambivalence, Sociopolitical Tensions and Co-option by Yanning Huang.

Read it here: https://utppublishing.com/toc/gl/18/3

In our latest issue, Jordan Tudisco shows that nonbinary French speakers articulate gender identity through a variety of...
26/02/2025

In our latest issue, Jordan Tudisco shows that nonbinary French speakers articulate gender identity through a variety of linguistic strategies that include nonbinary linguistic forms and novel uses of binary language, while reframing these linguistic innovations under a gender binary.
Read it here: https://utppublishing.com/toc/gl/18/3

Abstract:
This article explores the challenges posed by a self-determination model of identity for nonbinary French speakers. Situating nonbinary French speakers within a broader context of governmental and institutional rejection of nonbinary French, the article examines examples of nonbinary expression found in online mediatized representations as well as how this nonbinary expression is framed by narrators and producers of the content. In the two video examples selected for analysis, both taken from YouTube, nonbinary French speakers articulate nonbinary identity through a variety of linguistic strategies that include nonbinary linguistic forms and novel uses of binary language. However, regardless of the strategies used, narrators reframe these linguistic innovations under a gender binary. The reasons put forth for rejecting nonbinary expression may differ, but they all work to deny the existence of nonbinary people.

Cet article explore les problèmes que pose un modèle identitaire d'auto-détermination pour les francophones non-binaires. Il présente d'abord le contexte de rejet gouvernemental et institutionnel du français non-binaire auquel les francophones non-binaires sont confrontés. Ensuite, cet article examine plusieurs exemples d'expression non-binaire présents dans des vidéos en ligne ainsi que la manière dont les narrateurices et producteurices de ces vidéos articulent cette expression non-binaire. Dans les deux vidéos YouTube qui ont été sélectionnées et analysées dans cet article, les francophones non-binaires articulent leur identité non-binaire au travers de multiples stratégies linguistiques qui comprennent non seulement des néologismes non-binaires mais aussi une utilisation innovante de la langue binaire. Cependant, les narrateurices de ces vidéos imposent une vision binaire du genre sur ces innovations linguistiques, et ce peu importe les stratégies employées par les francophones non-binaires http://xn--prsent-cva.es/ dans ces vidéos. Les raisons qui motivent ce rejet de l'expression non-binaire diffèrent, mais elles mènent toutes Á une négation de l'existence des personnes non-binaires dans le monde francophone.

In our new issue, J Calder and Ariana Steele examine how Black nonbinary speakers and alternative drag queens use langua...
22/02/2025

In our new issue, J Calder and Ariana Steele examine how Black nonbinary speakers and alternative drag queens use language to transgress gender norms. The authors describe how mismatches between community-specific trans language ideologies and external, hegemonic ideologies can lead to judgements of trans speakers as improperly performing of femininity or masculinity. Check out their article here: https://utppublishing.com/toc/gl/18/3

Full abstract:
Sociolinguistics has primarily analysed gendered language as the speech of cisgender women and men, with speakers being expected to conform to cisgender patterns to successfully index gender. Furthermore, most research on the transgender voice has been conducted by speech-language pathologists prescribing that trans women and men should conform to cisgender norms in voicing their gender identities. To explore whether nonbinary speakers conform to such binaristic models, we examine /s/ realisations in two gender-nonnormative communities (in San Francisco, California and Columbus, Ohio). Both communities exhibit patterns opposite to cisgender norms. This may lead analysts to interpret nonbinary speakers’ performances of masculinity and femininity as unsuccessful. However, such practices are ratified within the speakers’ local communities, where disrupting binaries is a central social goal. Situating linguistic practice within local norms serves to faithfully represent the goals of the nonbinary speaking subject and avoids reifying the perspective of the cisgender listening subject as universal.

これまでの社会言語学研究は、シスジェンダーの男女の言語使用を中心に、話者がシスジェンダーの性差を示す言語表現をどのように用いるかを分析してきた。また、トランスジェンダー話者の声についての研究の多くは音声言語病理学者によって行われ、トランス女性やトランス男性が自らのジェンダーアイデンティティを声に反映させる際、シスジェンダーの基準を参照することが推奨されてきた。本研究は、ノンバイナリー話者がこのような両極端の性差を言語基準としているかを調査する。具体例として、カリフォルニア州サンフランシスコとオハイオ州コロンバスにおけるジェンダー非規範的なコミュニティの/s/の発音分析を報告する。調査結果では、いずれのコミュニティにおいても、シスジェンダーの基準とは異なる言語的パターンが確認された。この結果は一見、ノンバイナリー話者による男性性や女性性の表現が不完全であるという印象を与えるかもしれない。しかし実は、研究対象の話者の言語表現は、男女の性差を両極端として捉える枠組みから意図的に逸脱し、それが各コミュニティ内で受け入れられていることを示唆する。この観点から、言語表現をローカルな基準で位置づける意義が浮かび上がる。本稿は、従来のシスジェンダーの聞き手を普遍的な視点とする研究の枠組みに異議を唱え、ノンバイナリー話者の言語活動の目的とその意味を再評価する必要性を論じる。

03/02/2025

Explore the complexities of transgender identity in Hong Kong with Kimberly Tao's article in our new special issue, examining how language and societal dynamics shape diverse transgender experiences and reveal underlying fears of misrepresentation and exclusion. Watch Tao's video abstract below!

Access the article & special issue on trans linguistics here: https://utppublishing.com/toc/gl/18/3

Abstract: This article offers an analysis of the politics of naming and recognition regarding the label transgender in Hong Kong. It poses the question of how issues of gender identities, terminologies and ideologies play out in the societal context of postcolonial Hong Kong. It also highlights the complexity of Hong Kong transgender identities by documenting definitional tensions and boundary maintenance between two groups of local transgender women. While those in the ‘gender-normative transgender group’ value consistency and fixity in their gender identities, those in the ‘gender-inclusive transgender group’ embrace fluidity and diversity. Drawing from twelve interviews with self-identified transgender Hong Kongers, the article scrutinises diverse interpretations of transgender, revealing layers of meaning linked to fears of misrepresentation, exclusion, authenticity and cisnormativity. The research highlights the intricate interplay of language, identity and societal dynamics within Hong Kong's transgender discourse.

這篇文章對於香港有關「跨性別」標籤的命名與認可政治進行了分析。它提出了一個問題，即在後殖民時期的香港的社會背景下，性別身份、術語和意識形態問題如何展現。文章還通過記錄兩組本地跨性別女性之間的定義緊張和邊界維護，突顯了跨性別身份的複雜性。在「性別規範跨性別群體」中，那些人重視其性別身份的一致性和固定性，而在「性別包容跨性別群體」中，則擁抱流動性和多樣性。文章通過分析十二位次與自我認同為跨性別的香港人的訪談，深入審視了對「跨性別」這一概念的多種詮釋。這些訪談揭示了與誤表達、排斥、真實性主張及維護順性別常規相關的多層意義。文章強調了語言、身份和社會動態在香港跨性別話語中的錯綜交織。

31/01/2025

Out now in our new special issue on trans linguistics! Archie Crowley explores how trans individuals in South Carolina use language for personal and political goals. They examine interview participants' "self-facing" and "public facing" approaches to language, showing how language fosters self-determination and trans vitality. Watch their video abstract below!

You can access Dr. Crowley's full article here: https://utppublishing.com/toc/gl/18/3

Abstract: This article examines how transgender individuals in South Carolina negotiate community language practices in light of personal and political projects for trans vitality. Drawing on moments of metalinguistic commentary from online group interviews with trans and nonbinary people in South Carolina, this article focuses on examples from two interviews to explore how interviewees orient to two distinct understandings of language use: a ‘self-facing’ approach and a ‘public-facing’ approach. While participants describe creatively using language for enjoyment and self-exploration, they are keenly aware that their language is up for critique once it enters the public realm. As such, they invoke a linguistic ideology that recognises multiple contextual approaches to language use. This article demonstrates how these trans South Carolinians use language for trans life-making: for the simultaneous personal and political projects of self-determination and the making of a safe and viable world for trans people.

22/01/2025

Special Issue 18.3 guest editors Cedar Brown, deandre miles-hercules, and Lal Zimman argue for the importance of cultivating trans linguistics in an era when trans communities are facing unique vulnerabilities across the globe. Watch their video introduction to the issue below!

You can access our new special issue on trans linguistics here: https://utppublishing.com/toc/gl/18/3

Abstract:
This special issue on trans linguistics forefronts both resistance and creativity in responding to transphobia and other interlocking power dynamics that trans people must navigate. These practices exist in the context of growing hostilities, violence and repression of gender non-normative practices on a global scale. The articles highlight the unique configurations of communication born out of trans experiences, illustrating how their study can produce novel insights for the study of language. Together, the authors featured here expand the emerging field of trans linguistics, considering questions of legitimacy, visibility, agency and power by examining trans vocal, grammatical and discursive practices within their sociopolitical contexts. We come to this work as trans people and linguists who have been deeply involved in advancing trans-affirming linguistic change, but who see much room for growth in the ways our discipline serves, represents and accompanies trans people.

Special Issue 18.3 is on Trans Linguistics out now! The issue features an article by guest editors Cedar Brown, deandre ...
17/01/2025

Special Issue 18.3 is on Trans Linguistics out now! The issue features an article by guest editors Cedar Brown, deandre miles-hercules, and Lal Zimman on how the issue's authors highlight unique configurations of communication born out of trans experiences.

In their article, J Calder and Ariana Steele explore whether nonbinary speakers conform to binaristic models of cisgender men's and women's speech, examining /s/ realisations in two gender-nonnormative communities to interrogate the cisgender listening subject in the study of trans voices.

Cedar Brown draws on (auto)ethnographic and interview data from Australia and the US to examine how the practice of sharing pronouns in introduction rounds can counterbalance the vulnerability of transgender people in a system of mutually reinforcing cisnormative social institutions.

Jordan J. Tudisco situates nonbinary French speakers within a broader context of governmental and institutional rejection of nonbinary French, analyzing examples of nonbinary expression found in online mediatized representations and how they're framed by narrators and producers.

Kimberly Tao offers an analysis of the politics of naming and recognition regarding the label transgender in Hong Kong, highlighting complexity of Hong Kong transgender identities by documenting definitional tensions and boundary maintenance between two groups of local transgender women.

Dozandri C. Mendoza analyzes one Wynwood, Miami drag queen's /s/ production, tracking how the variable references alignment either with the aesthetic style of Wynwood drag related to the racialised chonga persona or with normative constructs of femininity.

Archie Crowley examines how transgender South Carolinians use language for trans life-making: for the simultaneous personal and political projects of self-determination and and the making of a safe and viable world for trans people, examining online group interviews with transgender and nonbinary people.

The issue also contains a foreword on "trans/formations in language, gender, and sexuality research" by our co-editors Rodrigo Borba, Kira Hall, and Mie Hiramoto.

Access all of these innovative articles here:

This special issue on trans linguistics forefronts both resistance and creativity in responding to transphobia and other interlocking power dynamics that trans people must navigate. These practices exist in the context of growing hostilities, violence and ...

We're thrilled to announce our new special issue on Trans Linguistics! Special Issue 18.3 guest editors Cedar Brown, dea...
17/01/2025

We're thrilled to announce our new special issue on Trans Linguistics! Special Issue 18.3 guest editors Cedar Brown, deandre miles-hercules, and Lal Zimman describe, "Together, the authors featured here expand the emerging field of trans linguistics, considering questions of visibility, agency and power by examining trans vocal, grammatical and discursive practices within their sociopolitical contexts". The authors featured approach their research "as trans people and linguists who have been deeply involved in advancing trans-affirming linguistic change".

You can access this innovative work in the field here:

This special issue on trans linguistics forefronts both resistance and creativity in responding to transphobia and other interlocking power dynamics that trans people must navigate. These practices exist in the context of growing hostilities, violence and ...

About 10 years ago, our former editor Tommaso Milani mentioned linguistic landscape studies have much room to incorporat...
14/01/2025

About 10 years ago, our former editor Tommaso Milani mentioned linguistic landscape studies have much room to incorporate gender and sexuality topics. And here we are 10 years later seeing our field has become advanced in this framework! We highly recommend Christian Go's new article in this domain, which focuses on linguistic landscapes related to gender and sexuality in the 2022 Philippine presidential elections.

You can read Go's article in the 10th anniversary issue of Linguistic Landscape here: https://benjamins.com/catalog/ll.24006.go

Check out this fascinating new article on stance and indexicality in the use of address terms in Chinese pop music fando...
03/01/2025

Check out this fascinating new article on stance and indexicality in the use of address terms in Chinese pop music fandom, written by Xinyu Li and Gender and Language co-editor Mie Hiramoto! The authors find that the use of address terms puts idols and fans in imagined romantic or familial relationships that echo or challenge heteronormativity.

Read it here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2024.100837

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Gender and Language offers an international forum for language-based research on gender and sexuality from feminist, q***r, and trans perspectives. While there are many journals focused on gender and many journals focused on language, Gender and Language is currently the only academic journal to which scholars interested in the intersection of these dimensions can turn, whether as contributors looking for an audience sharing this focus or as readers seeking a reliable source for current discussions in the field. The journal showcases research on the social analytics of gender in discourse domains that include institutions, media, politics and everyday interaction.

As a point of departure, Gender and Language defines gender along two key dimensions. First, gender is a key element of social relationships that are often loosely linked to perceived differences between women and men. Gender relations are ideologically encoded in linguistic and symbolic representations, normative concepts, institutions, social practices, and social identities. Second, gender is a primary arena for articulating power in complex interaction with other dimensions of social difference and identity, such as class, race, ability, age, and sexuality. Gender is understood as multi-faceted, always changing, and often contested. The editors welcome discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of competing definitions of gender and of new analytical perspectives.

Gender and Language was established in 2007 by the founding editors and Equinox Publishing, with the endorsement of the International Gender and Language Association (IGALA). Equinox and IGALA continue to enjoy a close partnership to further mutual goals of promoting cutting edge research on gender and language. Most critically, the journal aims to bring together a pan-global, interdisciplinary consortium of scholars whose work collectively challenges established disciplinary boundaries and incorporates multiple geopolitical axes of academic interpretation. To this end, the journal welcomes research employing a range of different approaches, among them applied linguistics, conversation analysis, corpus linguistics, critical discourse analysis, discursive psychology, ethnography of communication, interactional sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, linguistic landscapes, pragmatics, raciolinguistics, social semiotics, sociophonetics, stylistics, symbolic interactionism and variationist sociolinguistics.

Gender and Language welcomes research articles that display originality with respect to theoretical framing, use of empirical materials, timeliness, and/or methodological orientation. The journal also invites critical essays, interviews, exchanges, colloquia, commentaries and responses, brief translations of key articles originally published in languages other than English, profiles of key figures, reviews of recently published books and special issues devoted to topics of relevance to the field.