Locations of Silence (original) (raw)
Language, sexuality and place: The view from cyberspace
Gender and Language, 2011
This study attempts to use space/place as a tool in discourse analysis, focusing on the immediate surroundings of interaction. It investigates the ongoing performance of sexualised place (and place-based sexuality) through the use of language in online chat-rooms. The central questions focus on how the shared imaginary of a room helps to shape the performances of genders and sexualities unfolding 'there' and how the gendered and sexualised discourses sexualise the room. Guided by the triangle of space model , attention is paid to the chat rooms' user interface, the spatial metaphor of the 'room' , and to participant interaction as part of the three dimensions of online spatiality. Analysis focuses on data taken from a corpus of computer-mediated chat-room interaction. These are queer places for performances (in this case) of non-heterosexual, masculine identities and desires, which are marginalized in our heteronormative society. Gotved's model of online spatiality allows linguistic analysis to demonstrate that social understandings of space and place interact with individuals and communities on a mutually reformulating path.
Queerspace: Sexualized spaces revisited
interalia: a journal of queer studies, 2007
Reflecting on lessons learned from the endemic and tacit homophobia throughout his childhood in the American south, Diepiriye's personal narrative begins with realizing his first ally in a most unlikely corner. His best friend became the first in their class to grow breasts and the world seemed to collapse in on her much the same way the world abandoned him because of his effeminacy. Told in first person, this is the first chapter in a book that regards gender, race and class in the American south with critical the hindsight of a native who has now traversed the world, and currently resides on the other side.
Spaces of Female Friendship and Sexuality
altrelettere, 2022
This article examines the representation of friendship between adolescent girls in two novels by Silvia Avallone: Acciaio, published in 2010, and Un'amicizia of 2020. After identifying thematic points of contact between the two texts, which include adolescent coming of age, and the separation from parents as a rite of passage, the question of social class, and literary setting, the article focuses on the girls’ intimate friendship, their corporeal performances of sexuality, and their engagement with their surroundings. The adolescent girls adopt spaces of seclusion, or closet spaces (BROWN 2000), as a means of playing out the domestic sphere, exploring their sexuality and, ultimately, solidifying their friendship. I contend that in both of Avallone’s novels, the centrality of the adolescent girls’ friendship forms an original and highly engaging narrative strategy, as seen in the writer’s exploration of the intensity of the bond between two best friends, including an acknowledgement of same-sex desire. I posit that the writer’s depiction of female friendship is in part influenced by patriarchal norms, not only in her adoption of the male gaze, but also in that the relationship between the two girls is marked by rivalry, jealousy and conflict, thus undermining what might otherwise be deemed a feminist strategy and the potential for female solidarity (RAYMOND 1986).
Intimate places: playgrounds for self-exploration
Inscriptions, 2024
Our essay starts from our first-person experience of visiting El Eco Experimental Museum in Mexico City. Over the course of our visit, El Eco became, what we will call an 'intimate place' in which we were able to explore personal thoughts, memories, and feelings. We go on to compare El Eco to Black Water (2021), a site-specific art installation by RAAAF. We draw on Donald Winnicott's work on play to show how intimate places like the El Eco museum have commonalities with the therapeutic setting of psychotherapy. They are places that enable people to freely associate by enabling a visitor to be in a state of relaxation, and by affording a rich array of disruptive possibilities for self-exploration. We understand such intimate places as playgrounds that can (temporarily) disrupt rigid patterns of resistance or avoidance, enabling a person to confront difficult emotions and experiences that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Gender Roomours I : Gender and Space
2017
Women's "narrative space" the authority granted women's stories exists marginally, as the concept of female story continues to compete with the perceived monopoly of the "master text." "Sick humour," an approved method of publicly reducing subject to object, principally reconstructs its target, or "butt," through the mechanism of gender identification. Exploring the culture and popularity of "sick humour," I critique the means by which sick jokes-which can in some cases effect social change-define the public awareness of three ordinary American women: Christa McAuliffe, Cathleen Webb and Lorena Bobbitt. Assessing the narrative space of these women, whose private tragedies became sensational public domain, we experience how the humour surrounding and confining women replaces their specificity with the saleable and consumable images of other female bodies. Mary. Almost. Yes. Better. Ah. There. I've done it. See the invisibl...
Geographies of Sexuality: Constructions of Space and Belonging
2014
On-going research for my MPhil in sociology describes, documents and analyses self-identified non-heterosexual women (bisexual, lesbian, pan-sexual) from various parts of Trinidad, and how they construct an image of "Home", "Work", physical place and virtual space. This paper interrogates the cultural geographies of space and place. In particular how material cultures and social histories get grafted onto spaces to create a physical geography of place, as it relates to lesbian identity and citizenship. My ongoing aim is to illustrate the subjectivities created for LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) women within certain places and spaces. Through the women's experiences, addressing the intersections of gender, identity and ethnicity with space, I examine the sexing of spaces and the pervasive nature of heteronormativity in Trinidadian society.
Public Privates: Feminist Geographies of Mediated Spaces
The AAG Review of Books , 2019
It's like you can't believe nobody hasn't done it before: a feminist-geographic study of how public and private spaces are refracted in popular media; a feminist geography of Buffy the Vampire Slayer! That idea alone brings many of us to the edge of our chairs, but combine this with the crosscurrents of other popular productions-sitcoms and reality TV, (unexpected) movies such as the Fast and the Furious, Japanese horror films, kinky blogs, and even a vintage fetish zine-and you are being swept away in Marcia R. England's engaging new book, Public Privates.
Toplumsal Cinsiyet, Yer, Mekân & Kültür 7. Uluslararası Toplumsal Cinsiyet Çalışmaları Konferansı e-ISBN: 978-605-9595-30-8, 2019
Family home might be the first place where LGBT+ individuals intensely experience pressure and various forms of violence. For many LGBT+ subjects, leaving home is a liberating action that opens a way for eliminating domestic violence and offers a resource for establishing/experiencing their identity. Since then, the spaces that queers can be "queer" starts to be formed for the LGBT+s and gay venues (e.g. gay bars) are one of the critical components of this transition. They offer adequate information related to identity diversity, relatively safer zones and a sphere to find oneself or others. It also can enable new forms of relations and a sense of belonging to a place. However, there is still a risk that these venues can be repressive for several reasons that have similarities to the family home dynamics that put obstacles towards queer liberation. This study focuses on the opportunities and pitfalls of LGBT+ venues by comparison with the experience of the family home. I investigate the possibilities: Do these venues keep individuals away from oppression or do they become places where a different form of oppression emerges by expecting certain performances from their attendees similar to the inside home performance? Furthermore, I inquiry whether the gay individuals associate these venues with the notion "home", or the people in the community with the notion "family". To be able to acquire these possibilities, the in-depth interviews have been conducted with LGBT+ persons (n=13) who have experienced physical or digitally gay venues.