Event overview
GoldLingS (Goldsmiths Linguistic Seminars) with speaker Dr Helen Sauntson from York St John University
A growing body of research examines sexuality and schooling, however, very little of this research questions how homophobic discourse operates in differing ways for young women and men and tends to implicitly assume that homophobia is experienced in a similar way. More attention has also generally been paid to the experiences of gay men and boys (e.g. McCormack and Anderson, 2010; Morris et al, 2014; Rivers, 2012). Given the particularly detrimental effects of homophobic discourse on girls (Guasp, 2012), a more nuanced analysis of the gendered aspects of homophobic discourse in schools is needed.
This talk uses data from interviews with lesbian and bisexual-identified young women in which they discuss their experiences of negotiating and enacting their sexual identities in the school environment. The interviews are analysed using Bucholtz and Hall’s (2004; 2005) tactics of intersubjectivity framework to examine how participants understand their sexuality identities in relation to the secondary school context. The application of this queer theory-informed analytical framework offers deeper insights into sexual orientation and education than can be gained from thematic analysis alone.
Findings indicate that the frequent enactments of homophobia and biphobia through silence, ignoring and censoring in the school environment were particularly salient for the young women in the study. Furthermore, analysis of the interviews provides insight into some of the reasons for this gendered experience which relate to the UK school context. I consider the implications of these findings in relation to the development of UK policy around sexuality and schooling, arguing that such policies need to pay close attention to the gendered dimensions of sexuality.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 22 Nov 2016 | 4:00pm - 5:00pm |
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