Language and Queer Femininity | Video Essay

How can speech signal queerness? Why are there clear stereotypes about a "gay voice," but fewer distinctions about a single, marked "lesbian voice" in pop culture? In this video essay, I try to explain the relationships between language, sexuality, and gender in American society.
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Glossary:
1. Enregisterment: processes by which particular aspects of language become associated with a category of speakers. Enregisterment refers to the way we make judgements about a style of speech and a speaker’s relationship to region, class, ethnic community, gender, sexuality, personality, etc. A single feature (like a “lispy” s) can become enregistered to index multiple concepts (like feminine, gay, diva, etc…) depending on context.
2. Index: an index is a connection between a sign and a concept. Just like smoke (sign) indexes fire (concept being signified), or dark clouds index rain, an enregistered aspect of speech can index a stereotype about the speaker.
3. Gender crossing: a form of codeswitching to a variety spoken by a gender to which a speaker does not conventionally belong to.
4. Codeswitching: the practice of shifting between multiple languages or varieties of a single language.
5. Language Ideology: shared societal stereotypes about a group and their way of speaking and writing.
6. Performativity: identity as what is produced by our repeating acts that conventionally signal gender, sexuality, and other aspects of our social selves. Performativity theory challenges the idea that our behavior is entirely “natural” or innate. It draws attention to the social construction of things like masculinity or femininity.
7. Descriptive vs. prescriptive: descriptivist linguistics studies how people speak, while prescriptivist linguistics make judgements about how people should speak. Prescriptivism isn’t necessarily negative. Grammar lessons about using “fewer” vs. “less” or debates about using “they” vs. “he or she” as gender-neutral pronouns are all prescriptivist judgements (although they have different political significance).

Recommended Reading:
Lavender Language Linguistics: https://www.linguisticsociety.org/con...
Butler, J. (1988). Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory. Theatre Journal, 40(4), 519-531. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3207893.
Queen, R.M. (1997). I Don’t Speak Spritch. In Livia, M., & Hall, K., Queerly Phrased (pp. 202-213). Oxford University Press.

References:
Calder, J. (2020). From “Gay Lisp” to “Fierce Queen”: The Sociophonetics of Sexuality’s Most Iconic Variable. In Hall, K., & Barrett, R., The Oxford Handbook of Language and Sexuality. Oxford University Press. 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190212926.013.49
Cameron, D., & Kulick, Don. (2003). Language and Sexuality. Cambridge University Press.
Cornelius, B.R. (2020). Gay (White) Male Speech and the E(race)sure of Identity. In Hall, K., & Barrett, R., The Oxford Handbook of Language and Sexuality. Oxford University Press. 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190212926.013.61
Eckert, P. (2012). Three Waves of Variation Study: The Emergence of Meaning in the Study of Sociolinguistic Variation. Annual Review of Anthropology, 11(44), 87-100. 10.1146/annurev-anthro-092611-145828
Jones, L. (2018). Lesbian Identity Construction. In Hall, K., & Barrett, R., The Oxford Handbook of Language and Sexuality. Oxford University Press. 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190212926.013.28
Kiesling, S. (2007). Men, Masculinities, and Language. Language and Linguistic Compass, 1(6), 653-673. 10.1111/j.1749-818x.2007.00035.x
Kiesling, S. (2019). The “Gay Voice” and “Brospeak”: Toward a Systematic Model of Stance. In Hall, K., & Barrett, R., The Oxford Handbook of Language and Sexuality. Oxford University Press. 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190212926.013.11
Milani, T.M. (2019). Queer Performativity. In Hall, K., & Barrett, R., The ford Handbook of Language and Sexuality. Oxford University Press. 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190212926.013.15
Moonwomon-Baird, B. (1997). Toward a Study of Lesbian Speech. In Livia, M., & Hall, K., Queerly Phrased (pp. 202-213). Oxford University Press.
Podesva, R.J. (2007). Phonation type as a stylistic variable: The use of falsetto in constructing a persona. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 11(4), 478-504.

Video Clip Sources:
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Gone Girl:    • Cool Girl Monologue