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Deborah Cameron and Don Kulic: LANGUAGE AND SEXUALITY
How are sexuality and erotic desire expressed in language? Do gay men
and lesbians have a language of their own? Does ‘no’ always mean no?
Is sexual desire beyond words? This lively and accessible textbook
looks at how we talk about sex and why we talk about it the way
we do.
Drawing on a wide range of examples, from personal ads to phone
sex, fromsadomasochistic scenes to sexual assault trials, the book pro-
vides a clear introduction to the relationship between language and
sexuality. Using a broad definition of ‘sexuality’, the book encompasses
not only issues surrounding sexual orientation and identity – for in-
stance whether gay men and lesbians use language differently from
straight people – but also questions about the discursive construction
of sexuality and the verbal expression of erotic desire.
Cameron and Kulick contextualize their findings within current
research in linguistics, anthropology and psychology, and bring to-
getherrelevanttheoreticaldebatesonsexuality,gender,identity,desire,
meaning and power.
Topical and entertaining, this much-needed textbook will be wel-
comed by students and researchers in sociolinguistics, linguistic an-
thropology and gender/sexuality studies, as well as anyone interested
in the relationship between language and sex.
Contents:
Making connections
travestis, sexuality, lesbians
the linguistic and discursive
donnas, slapper, orgasm
What has gender got to do with sex? Language heterosexuality
transexuals, lakoff, homosocial
gay and lesbian language
legman, darsey, polari
language and desire
performatives, iterability, billig
theory research and politics
heteronormativity, queers, sociolinguists
Deborah Cameron is Professor of Languages at the Institute of
Education, University of London. She is the author of numerous
books, including Feminism and Linguistic Theory (1992), Verbal
Hygiene (1995) and Good to Talk (2000).
Don Kulick is Professor of Anthropology at New York University.
His published works include Language Shift and Cultural Reproduction
(1992), Taboo (1995, with Margaret Willson) and Travesti (1998). He
is co-editor of the journals Ethnos and GLQ.
...neither of us identifies as heterosexual: that we
ΑπάντησηΔιαγραφήare, respectively, a lesbian and a gay man. This is relevant information for
our readers to have, since it would be strange if our views on sexuality had
notbeenaffectedsignificantlybyourstatusasmembersofsexualminorities.
Our whole outlook on life is affected by that status – and also, no doubt,
by other social characteristics we happen to have in common, such as being
white, having received an elite academic education, and belonging to the
generation that came of age in the late 1970s: a decade after Stonewall, a
decade before Queer Nation.
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