Language, Sex and Social Structure: Analysing Discourses of Sexuality

162 Pages·2012·0.731 MB·

by  Jodie Clark (auth.)

Language, Sex and Social Structure
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Language, Sex and Social
Structure
Analysing Discourses of Sexuality
Jodie Clark
Sheffield Hallam University, UK
© Jodie Clark 2012
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-0-230-27666-6
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
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Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
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Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this
work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2012 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-32533-7 ISBN 978-1-137-28398-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137283986
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
This book is dedicated to my husband, Mark Pullinger,
whose courageous expression of his own vision is an endless
source of inspiration in my attempt to articulate mine
I dedicate it also to the memory of my mother, Carol Sue Clark.
Her love and encouragement, which made this project possible,
remain with me still
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Contents
List of Tables ix
Acknowledgements x
1 The Local Politics of Sexuality 1
1.1 Structured variation in discourses of sexuality 3
1.2 An ethnographic method for critical
discourse analysis 5
1.3 The logics that sustain conceptual systems 8
1.4 Agency without social actors 10
1.5 A relevance- theoretical methodology 11
1.6 Overview 13
2 Theorizing Social Structure 17
2.1 Social structure and emancipation 17
2.2 Foucault: sexuality and the ‘positive
mechanisms’ of power 20
2.3 Social life as practice 25
2.4 Giddens: structuration 26
2.5 Butler: the performative production of
sexual difference 32
2.6 ‘Community’ and practice theory in
sociolinguistic research 36
2.7 Emancipation, agency and structure 39
3 The Performative Production of Conceptual Systems 41
3.1 Discursive psychology 43
3.2 The performativity of conceptual systems 49
3.3 Relevance theory 52
3.4 Fieldwork and data collection 57
3.5 Applying the methodology 64
4 ‘Who’s Snogged a Girl, Who’s Slept with a Girl’: Sex
Concepts and Individual Concepts 65
4.1 Sex as a conceptual system 65
4.2 ‘I have never’ 73
4.3 Individual concepts 78
vii
viii Contents
5 ‘Oh Yeah, She’s a Good Hockey Player’: Local,
Emergent Social Structures 85
5.1 ‘I’ll end up being gay because I’m a hockey player’ 86
5.1.1 Sexuality and individual identities 88
5.1.2 Sexuality and the ‘hockey player’ identity 91
5.2 The achievement of HOCKEY PLAYER** 95
5.2.1 HOCKEY PLAYER** and individual identity 96
5.2.2 HOCKEY PLAYER** and community membership 99
5.3 Identities in conflict 105
5.4 Conclusion 109
6 ‘And the Size of His …’ ‘Shush!’: Hockey,
Achievement and the Silencing of Desire 111
6.1 The ‘image’ of women’s football 112
6.2 Heterosexuality as achievement 117
6.3 Heterosexuality and hockey: positioning hockey
within a larger network of women’s sport 121
6.4 Hockey v. rugby: identity v. desire 124
6.5 Constructing the desiring hockey player 129
7 ‘After University They’ll Go Back to Normal’: the
Emancipatory Agenda 135
7.1 Sexuality, achievement and the team’s
dividing practices 135
7.2 Who are the losers here? 136
7.3 The emancipatory agenda: is the focus too local? 138
Appendix: Transcription Conventions 145
Notes 147
Bibliography 149
Index 153
List of Tables
3.1 Dates of evening meals and participants 63
3.2 Participants’ status and number of meals attended 63
6.1 Subjects/objects of desire 126
ix