scholarly journals Implicit homophobic argument structure

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabelle van der Bom ◽  
Laura Coffey-Glover ◽  
Lucy Jones ◽  
Sara Mills ◽  
Laura L. Paterson
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
Argumentation Structure ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Moral Maze ◽  
The Way

This article analyses the linguistic and discursive elements which contribute to the production of implicit homophobia. Explicit homophobia has been well documented and strategies for countering discriminatory language have been developed (Baker 2014, Leap 2012). However, our interest here is in documenting implicit homophobia, where homophobic beliefs are only hinted at, are disassociated from the speaker, or are embedded within discursive and argument structures. We decided to analyse the debate in the media around the introduction of equal or same-sex marriage legislation in the UK. We focused our analysis on a series of radio programmes on BBC Radio 4, The Moral Maze (2011–2012), where the issue of same-sex marriage was debated with a team of panelists and invited guests from a range of different organisations. Different perspectives on same-sex marriage were discussed, in a seemingly objective and dispassionate way, where the interactants distanced themselves from homophobic beliefs and yet implicitly subscribed to homophobia. We used an analysis drawing on argumentation structure (Fairclough & Fairclough 2012) and through focusing on stance, recontextualisation, imaginaries, and metaphor, we developed an analysis which made the way that implicit homophobia works more visible. In this way, we hope to foreground implicit homophobia, and develop a linguistic and discursive ‘toolkit’ which will enable it to be challenged and countered.

scholarly journals ‘Barbarous cruelty at the British Museum’: mediatization, authority, and reputation in nineteenth-century England

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (54) ◽  
pp. 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison Cavanagh
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Moral Authority ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Media History ◽  
The Media ◽  
Cultural Power ◽  
The Times ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Way

<p>This article considers the usefulness of mediatization theories in historical studies of the media. Using a series of letters published in the UK newspaper The Times between 1885 and 1886 as an example, the article examines the way in which processes of mediatization developed alongside the institutions of social and cultural power by which they were reflexively constituted. On the basis of Hjarvard’s distinction between direct and indirect forms of mediatization, the paper looks at the ways in which the enunciation of moral authority and personal reputation were transformed by their incorporation into mediatized culture. At the same time, it is argued that mediatization is not a standalone process but is, rather, part of a wider set of social processes. The article reflects on the contribution of mediatization theories to developing a rounded picture of media history.</p>

Left Behind By the Alter: Why Queers and Sociologists Need Materialist Feminism

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Edwards
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Lgbt Rights ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
Feminist Analysis ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Media ◽  
Materialist Feminist

<p class="FrontMatterbody">The United States marriage rights movement just culminated in July 2015 with the Supreme Court declaring same-sex marriage constitutional.  The mainstream — the mainstream media and the mainstream LGBT rights movement — all applaud this trajectory, with no attention to those who get left behind in marriage politics.  In this paper, I will argue that same-sex marriage is in need of a materialist feminist analysis.  I will critique my discipline — Sociology — for failing to adequately theorize same-sex marriage as a key component of the 21<sup>st</sup> Century landscape of the capitalist mode of production.  I will also critique the mainstream LGBT rights movement and the media attention given same-sex marriage for their lack of attention to the classed relations embedded in marriage rights.  A materialist feminist analysis will allow us to see that there’s still a need for a larger, more emancipatory sexual politics. </p>

Unnatural acts lead to unconsummated marriages

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie Y. Findlay
Keyword(s):  
Same Sex ◽  
Discursive Space ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
House Of Lords ◽  
Marriage Laws ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Liberal Position

Abstract In June and July 2013, the UK House of Lords debated, and ultimately accepted, a Bill to legalise same-sex marriage. Following the model of Baker’s (2004) work on a set of earlier Lords debates relating to homosexuality, this study uses a corpus-based keywords analysis to assess the main lexical differences between those arguing in favour and those arguing against a change to the marriage laws. In so doing, it sheds light on the ways in which discourses relating to homosexuality are constructed and accessed by the Lords. In general, it is shown that supporters of reform take advantage of their hegemonic liberal position to construct a simple line of argument in contrast to the opponents, who are forced to use more subtle and elaborate lines of reasoning by the limited discursive space available to those espousing anti-LGBT sentiments.

scholarly journals The legalisation of same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland

2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Conor McCormick ◽  
Thomas Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
High Court ◽  
Legal Challenges ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Court Of Appeal ◽  
Law Making

The saga which led to the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland offers some important lessons about the processes of law-making for that jurisdiction, together with broader lessons about how the European Convention on Human Rights could be applied in strategic litigation elsewhere. This commentary analyses four episodes in that saga. It begins by evaluating several failed attempts to achieve legalisation at the Northern Ireland Assembly, before considering two legal challenges which also failed in the High Court of Northern Ireland. The developments which eventually led to legal change through the Parliament of the UK are assessed thereafter, followed by an appraisal of the most significant legal features in a set of judgments handed down by the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland shortly afterwards. It is concluded, in particular, that lessons in connection with how petitions of concern are deployed in the devolved legislature, as well as lessons about how the prohibition on discrimination contained in Article 14 of the Convention has been interpreted, are deserving of wider circulation and appreciation among LGBT rights campaigners in Northern Ireland and beyond.

Discourses on LGBT Asylum in the Uk

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thibaut Raboin
Keyword(s):  
Queer Studies ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Media Narratives ◽  
The Way

Discourses on LGBT asylum in the UK analyses fifteen years of debate, activism and media narrative and examines the way asylum is conceptualized at the crossroads of nationhood, post colonialism and sexual citizenship, reshaping in the process forms of sexual belongings to the nation. Asylum has become a foremost site for the formulation and critique of LGBT human rights. This book intervenes in the ongoing discussion of homonationalism, sheds new light on the limitations of queer liberalism as a political strategy, and questions the prevailing modes of solidarity with queer migrants in the UK. This book employs the methods of Discourse Analysis to study a large corpus encompassing media narratives, policy documents, debates with activists and NGOs, and also counter discourses emerging from art practice. The study of these discourses illuminates the construction of the social problem of LGBT asylum. Doing so, it shows how our understanding of asylum is firmly rooted in the individual stories of migration that are circulated in the media. The book also critiques the exclusionary management of cases by the state, especially in the way the state manufactures the authenticity of queer refugees. Finally, it investigates the affective economy of asylum, assessing critically the role of sympathy and challenging the happy goals of queer liberalism. This book will be essential for researchers and students specializing in refugee studies and queer studies.

scholarly journals Association between marital status and mental health among cohabitating same-sex couples in the UK

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
D Hagen ◽  
E Goldmann
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Marital Status ◽  
General Health Questionnaire ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Inverse Association ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
Civil Partnership ◽  
The Uk

Abstract Background A large body of research suggests that the formalisation of opposite-sex relationships is associated with favourable mental health outcomes, particularly among males. Despite the recent introduction of same-sex civil partnership and/or marriage in many countries, there is little evidence as to whether this salutary effect of formalised partnership extends to same-sex couples. Methods Using data from wave 8 (2016-18) of Understanding Society: the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS), respondents living with a same-sex partner were included in the analytical sample (n = 225). Respondents from Northern Ireland were excluded, as same-sex marriage did not exist there at the time of data collection. Mental health status was assessed using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)-12 (range: 0-36) and the established cut-off point of 11/12 to identify psychiatric caseness. The association between marital status (marriage, civil partnership, and cohabitation only) and psychiatric caseness was examined in logistic regression models in the overall sample and stratified by sex. Results A total of 112 respondents (40%) were cohabitating, 81 (40%) were living in civil partnership, and 32 (19%) were married. In bivariable analyses, respondents living in civil partnership had a lower prevalence of psychiatric caseness (30%) than those who were married (50%) or cohabitating only (51%) (p = 0.041). In models adjusted for age, sex, and education, civil partnership was associated with 84% reduced odds of psychiatric caseness (95% CI: 0.39-0.66) compared to cohabitation among females; no statistically significant effect was found for marriage or among males. Conclusions This study provided evidence of a inverse association between civil partnership and psychiatric caseness among females in same-sex couples. Given that same-sex marriage was only introduced in England, Wales, and Scotland in 2014, further research will be needed as more same-sex couples formalise their relationships.

scholarly journals Discourses of marriage in same-sex marriage debates in the UK press 2011–2014

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura L. Paterson ◽  
Laura Coffey-Glover
Keyword(s):  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Semantic Fields ◽  
Queer Linguistics ◽  
National Newspaper ◽  
The Uk

Abstract This paper interrogates media representations of same-sex marriage debates in the UK using a combination of corpus linguistics tools and close reading, and drawing on Queer Linguistics. Following related work by Bachmann (2011), Baker (2004), and Love and Baker (2015), we analyse a 1.3 million-word corpus of UK national newspaper texts compiled for the Discourses of Marriage Research Group. Our corpus stretches from September 2011 and the announcement of a government consultation on same-sex marriage, to April 2014 when the first same-sex marriages took place. Using a top-down approach we investigate the discourses drawn upon in same-sex marriage debates (as indexed by keywords and key semantic fields) and uncover the binary social categories used to normalise social structures and hold the same-sex marriage debate in place. We also consider which social actors are (not) given a voice and/or agency and discuss how (same-sex) marriage is constituted.

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