Articulations of Same-sex Desire: Lesbian and Gay Male Dating Advertisements

Authors: Thorne, Adrian; Coupland, Justine

Source: Journal of Sociolinguistics, Volume 2, Number 2, June 1998 , pp. 233-257(25)

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Abstract:

A survey of self and other categorisation in 200 lesbian and gay male dating advertisement texts, taken from current magazines and newspapers, reveals the discursive means by which homosexual advertisers in our corpus commodify and market sexual/self-gendered identities. Detailed analysis of a sub-sample of the advertisements allows us to trace the discourse processes and conventions used in formulating identity in such texts. We interpret these discourse practices in relation to a social critique of gay attitudes, beliefs and lifestyles. The different conventions for self-commodification followed by lesbians and gay men in this survey suggest generalisable differences in sexual stance and cultural identification

Keywords: Lesbian; gay male; identity; dating advertisements; self-presentation; discourse; intertextuality

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9481.00042

Affiliations: 1: University of Wales Cardiff

Publication date: 1998-06-01