body language

[Joshua Raclaw]

I'm not sure that referring to these women as "masculine" necessarily conveys that kind of delegitimation.  The term comes off (to me) more as reinforcing ideas about gender fluidity rather than the status quo, and I see it used in scholarship most often to challenge the dominant connection between masculinity and male bodies, or the idea that only "feminine" women are real women.

On the other hand, I'd probably be more inclined to read about how these women "do masculinity" through conversation rather than a description of "masculine women's conversational style" (which seems to limit the range of gendered subjectivities these women are able to enact through talk).

Joshua



Joshua Raclaw - PhD student
Department of Linguistics
Culture, Language & Social Practice
Women and Gender Studies
University of Colorado at Boulder
http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~raclaw/


---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:30:54 -0500
>From: Amy Sheldon <asheldon at UMN.EDU>  
>Subject: Re: body language  
>To: GALA-L at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
>
>	One of the problems I have with the idea of describing nondrag king  
>women as "mascuiline" women, is that it conveys the idea that such  
>women are not "real" women.  Not bona fide. If we stick with labels  
>that come out of the rhetoric of gender hierarchy and gender  
>categories, i.e., the status quo,, that's one of the consequences.   
>Gender is political.
>Amy
>



>On Mar 25, 2008, at 8:23 AM, Cecilia E.Ford wrote:
>
>> Amy and all
>> I could imagine studying the sign language of deaf drag kings,  
>> following on the work of Judith Halberstam on Female Masculinity.
>	Agreed.
>
>> One could also explore the use of body in drag king performance  
>> more generally.  Interviews with the performers might provide a  
>> grounding in how they identify (or not) with "masculinity" as they  
>> perform (and off stage).
>
>> Ceci
>>
>> Sheldon wrote:
>>> Dear Rezenet,
>>>
>>> Why call it "masculine"?
>>> And do native signers use that word?
>>> Amy Sheldon
>>>
>>> On Mar 24, 2008, at 10:32 PM, cappucheeno at YAHOO.COM wrote:
>>>
>>>> If anyone has this information, please kindly share with me too.  
>>>> I'm doing an independent study on sign language, focusing on  
>>>> masculine women's conversational style.
>>>>
>>>> Thank you Abby for bringing this up.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> All the best,
>>>>
>>>> Rezenet Moges
>>>>
>>>> Research Assistant,
>>>> Anthropology Department,
>>>> CSU, Long Beach
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ------Original Message------
>>>> From: ABIGAIL RITA ARMOUR
>>>> Sender:
>>>> To: GALA-L at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
>>>> ReplyTo: List for the International Gender and Language Association
>>>> Sent: Mar 24, 2008 6:02 PM
>>>> Subject: body language
>>>>
>>>> I am trying to write a paper for a gender and language class at  
>>>> my university about how men and women use body language in  
>>>> conversation.  However, I really do not have any idea where to  
>>>> start and was wondering if anybody had any suggestions.  I am  
>>>> really open to anything along these lines because I am ready to  
>>>> go where the research will take me.  Thank you very much for your  
>>>> help!
>>>>
>>>> Abby
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> http://muddy.erinad.org