Abstract
Gender performativity theory considers that gender is not a natural consequence of people’s bodies, but a series of repeated acts regulated by social constraints that one performs to create a natural, usually heterosexual, being. Through the analysis of the conceptual metaphor gender is a performance in Spanish Internet personal ads, this study shows linguistic evidence that speakers, ad posters, are aware of the performative nature of gender, and also shows gender as a prototypical category, in which some members are more central than others. Finally, when using this conceptual metaphor, this study shows that ad posters describe the characteristics of ideal heterosexuals as naturalized and commonsense, thereby re-creating traditional ideologies about gender, and further promoting heteronormativity.
About the author
Deyanira Rojas-Sosa received her PhD in Hispanic Linguistics from the University of Minnesota. She is Assistant Professor at SUNY New Paltz. Her research interests include language and gender, Spanish and Latinas/os in the United States, and discourse analysis. Her most recent publication is “The denial of racism in Latino students’ narratives about discrimination in the classroom” (Discourse and Society, January 2016, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 69–94).
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