Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
OK
Speaking in Queer Tongues: GLOBALIZATION AND GAY LANGUAGE
Western constructions of gay culture are now circulating widely beyond the boundaries of Western nations due to influences as diverse as Internet communication, global dissemination of entertainment and other media, increased travel and tourism, migration, displacement, and transnational citizenship. The authority claimed by these constructions, and by the linguistic codes embedded in them, is causing them to have a profound impact on public and private expressions of homosexuality in locations as diverse as sub-Saharan Africa, New Zealand, Indonesia and Israel.
Examining a wide range of global cultures, Speaking in Queer Tongues presents essays on topics that include old versus new sexual vocabularies, the rhetoric of gay-oriented magazines and news media, verbal and nonverbalized sexual imagery in poetry and popular culture, and the linguistic consequences of the globalized gay rights movement.
- ISBN-100252028716
- ISBN-13978-0252028717
- PublisherUniversity of Illinois Press
- Publication dateNovember 7, 2003
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions6.25 x 1 x 9.25 inches
- Print length296 pages
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : University of Illinois Press (November 7, 2003)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 296 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0252028716
- ISBN-13 : 978-0252028717
- Item Weight : 1.2 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.25 x 1 x 9.25 inches
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
William L. Leap, PhD, is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the American University (Washington, DC) and an Affiliate Professor in the Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Florida Atlantic University (Boca Raton, FL). He is the founder of the Lavender Languages Conference and, with Heiko Motschenbacher, the founding co-editor of the Journal of Language & Sexuality. His writings about language and sexuality address topics as varied as race/class inequities, sexuality and gender differences, language socialization, homophobia/hate speech, gay pornography, trans-national circulations, subaltern voice, and problems of queer historiography. He is completing a study of language, sexuality and inequality in late apartheid Capetown, South Africa, and continues to explore materials documenting language use in the US before Stonewall. When not doing research or writing, he enjoys his swimming pool and the other benefits of low-maintenance living in sunny South Florida.
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top review from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
This book provides a good global sampling. It moves from Western countries to non-Western ones to communities of color in the United States. Some articles just ask whether the word "gay" is now being used in various countries and when. Others asked how the concept of sexual orientation as an identity melds or clashes with old sexual categorizations in particular countries. Some articles just detail what terms same-gender-loving people use in magazines and at clubs. Others are deep comparative literature and ethnography which ask larger questionss about the society at large. One of the great things about this book is that gay Americans who don't know much about other countries can learn about those countries generally as well as their LGBT communities here.
I am sure that William Leap had an original, revolutionary idea when he coined his term. It doesn't surprise me that he would spearhead amassing articles from academics discussing the phenomenon globally. However, so many contributors quote his work that I wonder if they had to cite him in order to be included here.
Often times in books that cover global phenomena, the Western chapters are huge and the non-Western ones are scant. The total opposite occurs here. The articles on Germany and France were small. The ones on Indonesia, Thailand, and communities of color in the US were huge. In fact, in Indonesia, gay have invented their own language! This begs the question of whether American or Anglo-American cultural imperialism is more of a concern outside the West, rather than inside it. Still, the book consistently answers that foreigners are not just consuming American ideas hook, line, and sinker. They are active agents who adapt concepts to their own prerogatives.
I do recommend this books to others. It's academics but the chapters that cover one's own community may very well speak to you. The communities of which you are not familiar may intrigue you as well.