Gendered politics of enmity
language ideologies and social polarisation in Brazil
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.38416Keywords:
language ideologies, brazilian portuguese, grammatical gender, political polarisationAbstract
This paper analyses the role language and gender have played in the construction of animosity among various constituencies during a political crisis in Brazil. To do so, it investigates a language ideological debate about the innovative use of the letter X as a gender morpheme – an inclusive alternative against Portuguese binary grammatical gender system. The data include op-eds, blog posts, news articles and in-depth semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in the debate. The analyses track the emergence of competing metadiscursive and metapragmatic regimes about grammar, gender and politics. On a macro-sociological level, this language ideological work helps shape politics of enmity which characterise the current state of democracy in Brazil and elsewhere. However, it also points to the emergence of situated counterdiscourses of solidarity which help individuals face an otherwise debilitating social context.
References
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Borba, R. (2019) Injurious signs: the geopolitics of hate and hope in the linguistic landscape of a political crisis. In Amiena Peck, Christopher Stroud and Quentin Williams (eds) Making Sense of People and Place in Linguistic Landscape 161–81. London: Bloomsbury.
Burnett, H. and Bonami, O. (2019) Linguistic prescription, ideological structure, and the actuation of linguistic changes: grammatical gender in French parliamentary debates. Language in Society 48(1): 65–93. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404518001161
Caldas-Coulthard, C. R. (2007) Caro colega: exclusão linguística e invisibilidade. Discurso y Sociedad 1(2): 230–46.
Cameron, D. (1985) Feminism and Linguistic Theory. London: Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17727-1
Cameron, D. (1995) Verbal Hygiene. London: Routledge.
Cameron, D. (2014) Gender and language ideologies. In Susan Ehrlich, Miriam Meyerhoff and Janet Holmes (eds) The Handbook of Language, Gender and Sexuality, 2nd edition, 281–296. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118584248.ch14
Cavalcante, S. and Coán, M. (2018) O Vocábulo Presidenta sob Análise em Cinco Dimensões Correlatas. Signótica 30(2): 182–203. https://doi.org/10.5216/sig.v30i2.48021
Chauí, M. (2016) A Nova Classe Trabalhadora Brasileira e a Ascensão do Conservadorismo. In Ivana Jinkings, Kim Doria and M. Cleto (eds) Por que Gritamos Golpe? 15–22. São Paulo: Boitempo.
Coady, A. (2018) The origin of sexism in language. Gender and Language 12(3): 271–93. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.31445
Corrêa, S. (2018) A ‘política do gênero’: um comentário genealógico. Cadernos Pagu 53: e185301. https://doi.org/10.1590/18094449201800530001
Corrêa, S., Patternotte, D. and Kuhar, R. (2018) The globalization of anti-gender campaigns. International Politics and Society. Retrieved on 26 July 2018 from https://bit.ly/2LpFmdk.
Coutant, A. (2016) Masculin, féminin: l’indicibilité de la non-coïncidence sexe genre. In Bailly Sophie, Ranchon Grâce and Tomc Sandra (eds) Pratiques et langages du genre et du sexe: déconstruire l?idéologie sexiste du binarisme 121–43. Louvain-la-Neuve: EME Éditions.
Curzan, A. (2003) Gender Shifts in the History of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486913
DeOnís, C. (2017) What’s in an ‘x’? An exchange about the politics of ‘Latinxs’. Chiricú Journal: Latinxs Literatures, Arts and Cultures 1: 78–91. https://doi.org/10.2979/chiricu.1.2.07
Ehrlich, S. and King, R. (1992) Gender-based language reform and the construction of meaning. Discourse and Society 3(2): 151–66. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926592003002002
Endruschat, A. (2015) Gender in Portuguese. In Marlis Hellinger and Heiko Motschenbacher (eds) Gender across Languages: The Linguistic Representation of Women and Men, vol. 4, 303–33. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Foucault, M. (2014) Microfísica do Poder, 28th edition. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra.
Freitas, M. (2015) O x da questão: gênero neutro como ato ético e estético? In F. Moraes, T. Moreira, F. Mussareli and V. Miotelo (eds) Palavras e Contrapalavras 159–70. São Carlos: Pedro & João.
Gal, S. (1995) Language, gender, ad power: an anthropological review. In Kira Hall and Mary Bucholtz (eds), Gender Articulated 169–82. New York: Routledge.
Hall, K. (2007) X (Rated). In F. Malti-Douglas (ed.) Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender 1561–2. Detroit: McMillan.
Irvine, J. and Gal, S. (2000). Language ideology and linguistic differentiation. In Paul Kroskrity (ed.) Regimes of Language: Ideologies, Polities and Identities 35–84. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.
Lagares, X. C. (2018). Qual Política Linguística? Desafios Glotopolíticos Contemporâneos. São Paulo: Parábola.
Mader, G. and Severo, C. (2016). Sexismo e Políticas Linguísticas de Gênero. In R. Freitag, C. Severo and E. Gosrki (eds) Sociolinguística e Políticas Linguísticas 245–60. São Paulo: Bulcher. https://doi.org/10.5151/9788580391466-12
Matos, M. (2016) Subversiones Lingüísticas del Español: @, x, e como Morfemas de Género Inclusivo y Otros Recursos Estilísticos en Publicaciones Anarquistas Contemporáneas. New York: CUNY Academic Works.
Mbembe, A. (2017) Políticas de Inimizade. Lisbon: Antígona.
Milani, T. (2010) What’s in a name? Language ideology and social differentiation in a Swedish print-mediated debate. Journal of Sociolinguistics 14(1): 116–42. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2009.00435.x
Mills, S. (2008) Language and Sexism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511755033
Miskolci, R. (2018) Exorcising a ghost: the interests behind the war on ‘gender ideology’. Cadernos Pagu 53. Retrieved on 26 July 2018 from https://bit.ly/2LoNdIa.
Miskolci, R. and Campana, M. (2017) ‘Ideologia de gênero’: notas para a genealogia de um pânico moral contemporâneo. Sociedade e Estado 32: 723–45. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0102-69922017.3203008
Motschenbacher, H. (2014) Grammatical gender as a challenge for language policy: the (im)possibility of non-heteronormative language use in German versus English. Language Policy 13(3): 243–61. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-013-9300-0
Ortellado, P., Solano, E. and Moretto, M (2016) Uma sociedade polarizada? In I. Jinkings, K. Doria and M. Cleto (eds) Por que Gritamos Golpe? 159–64. São Paulo: Boitempo.
Pauwels, A. (1998) Women Changing Language. London: Longman.
Pelkey, J. (2017) The Semiotics of X: Chiasmus, Cognition and Extreme Body Memory. London: Bloomsbury.
Penelope, J. (1982) Power and the opposition to feminist proposals for language change. College English 44(8): 840–8. https://doi.org/10.2307/377340
Pinto, J. and Badan, S. (2012). Feminismo e identidades no cerne dos princípios de pesquisa. Calidoscópio 10: 133–9. https://doi.org/10.4013/cld.2012.102.01
Rampton, B. (2005) Crossing: Language and Ethnicity among Adolescents. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.
Ratzinger, J. A. (1997) La Sal de la Tierra. Madrid: Libros Palabra.
Sacks, D. (2010) Alphabets: A Miscellany of Letters. London: Black Dog Publishing.
Safatle, V. (2018) ‘Não vai haver eleição no Brasil’. Radio France Internationele. Retrieved on 27 July 2018 from https://bit.ly/2LEyVSJ.
Scala, J. (2010). La Ideología del Género. Rosario: Ediciones Logos.
Silverstein, M. and Urban, G. (eds) (1996) Natural Histories of Discourse. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Soares, M. (2012) Português na escola: história de uma disciplina curricular. In M. Bagno (ed.) Linguística da Norma 155–78. São Paulo: Loyola.
Souza, J. (2016) A Radiografia do Golpe. Rio de Janeiro: Leya.
Weirich, A.-C. (2016) ‘Moldovan’ and feminist language politics: two distinct peripheral linguistic markets. In Julie Abbou and Fabienne Baider (eds) Gender, Language and the Periphery 285–322. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.264.11wei
Wodak, R. (2015). Politics of Fear: What Right-Wing Populist Discourses Mean. London: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446270073
Yaguello, M. (1978) Les Mots et le Femmes. Paris: Payot.
Zimman, L. (2017) Transgender language reform: some challenges and strategies for promoting trans-affirming, gender-inclusive language. Language and Discrimination 1(1): 85–105. https://doi.org/10.1558/jld.33139
Abbou, J and Baider, F. H. (2016) Periphery, gender and language: an introduction. In Julie Abbou and Fabienne H. Baider (eds) Gender, Language and the Periphery: Grammatical and Social Gender from the Margins 1–24. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.264.01abb
Blommaert, J. (1999) The debate is open. In Jan Blommaert (ed.) Language Ideological Debates 1–38. New York: Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110808049.1
Borba, R. (2019) Injurious signs: the geopolitics of hate and hope in the linguistic landscape of a political crisis. In Amiena Peck, Christopher Stroud and Quentin Williams (eds) Making Sense of People and Place in Linguistic Landscape 161–81. London: Bloomsbury.
Burnett, H. and Bonami, O. (2019) Linguistic prescription, ideological structure, and the actuation of linguistic changes: grammatical gender in French parliamentary debates. Language in Society 48(1): 65–93. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404518001161
Caldas-Coulthard, C. R. (2007) Caro colega: exclusão linguística e invisibilidade. Discurso y Sociedad 1(2): 230–46.
Cameron, D. (1985) Feminism and Linguistic Theory. London: Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17727-1
Cameron, D. (1995) Verbal Hygiene. London: Routledge.
Cameron, D. (2014) Gender and language ideologies. In Susan Ehrlich, Miriam Meyerhoff and Janet Holmes (eds) The Handbook of Language, Gender and Sexuality, 2nd edition, 281–296. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118584248.ch14
Cavalcante, S. and Coán, M. (2018) O Vocábulo Presidenta sob Análise em Cinco Dimensões Correlatas. Signótica 30(2): 182–203. https://doi.org/10.5216/sig.v30i2.48021
Chauí, M. (2016) A Nova Classe Trabalhadora Brasileira e a Ascensão do Conservadorismo. In Ivana Jinkings, Kim Doria and M. Cleto (eds) Por que Gritamos Golpe? 15–22. São Paulo: Boitempo.
Coady, A. (2018) The origin of sexism in language. Gender and Language 12(3): 271–93. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.31445
Corrêa, S. (2018) A ‘política do gênero’: um comentário genealógico. Cadernos Pagu 53: e185301. https://doi.org/10.1590/18094449201800530001
Corrêa, S., Patternotte, D. and Kuhar, R. (2018) The globalization of anti-gender campaigns. International Politics and Society. Retrieved on 26 July 2018 from https://bit.ly/2LpFmdk.
Coutant, A. (2016) Masculin, féminin: l’indicibilité de la non-coïncidence sexe genre. In Bailly Sophie, Ranchon Grâce and Tomc Sandra (eds) Pratiques et langages du genre et du sexe: déconstruire l?idéologie sexiste du binarisme 121–43. Louvain-la-Neuve: EME Éditions.
Curzan, A. (2003) Gender Shifts in the History of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486913
DeOnís, C. (2017) What’s in an ‘x’? An exchange about the politics of ‘Latinxs’. Chiricú Journal: Latinxs Literatures, Arts and Cultures 1: 78–91. https://doi.org/10.2979/chiricu.1.2.07
Ehrlich, S. and King, R. (1992) Gender-based language reform and the construction of meaning. Discourse and Society 3(2): 151–66. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926592003002002
Endruschat, A. (2015) Gender in Portuguese. In Marlis Hellinger and Heiko Motschenbacher (eds) Gender across Languages: The Linguistic Representation of Women and Men, vol. 4, 303–33. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Foucault, M. (2014) Microfísica do Poder, 28th edition. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra.
Freitas, M. (2015) O x da questão: gênero neutro como ato ético e estético? In F. Moraes, T. Moreira, F. Mussareli and V. Miotelo (eds) Palavras e Contrapalavras 159–70. São Carlos: Pedro & João.
Gal, S. (1995) Language, gender, ad power: an anthropological review. In Kira Hall and Mary Bucholtz (eds), Gender Articulated 169–82. New York: Routledge.
Hall, K. (2007) X (Rated). In F. Malti-Douglas (ed.) Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender 1561–2. Detroit: McMillan.
Irvine, J. and Gal, S. (2000). Language ideology and linguistic differentiation. In Paul Kroskrity (ed.) Regimes of Language: Ideologies, Polities and Identities 35–84. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.
Lagares, X. C. (2018). Qual Política Linguística? Desafios Glotopolíticos Contemporâneos. São Paulo: Parábola.
Mader, G. and Severo, C. (2016). Sexismo e Políticas Linguísticas de Gênero. In R. Freitag, C. Severo and E. Gosrki (eds) Sociolinguística e Políticas Linguísticas 245–60. São Paulo: Bulcher. https://doi.org/10.5151/9788580391466-12
Matos, M. (2016) Subversiones Lingüísticas del Español: @, x, e como Morfemas de Género Inclusivo y Otros Recursos Estilísticos en Publicaciones Anarquistas Contemporáneas. New York: CUNY Academic Works.
Mbembe, A. (2017) Políticas de Inimizade. Lisbon: Antígona.
Milani, T. (2010) What’s in a name? Language ideology and social differentiation in a Swedish print-mediated debate. Journal of Sociolinguistics 14(1): 116–42. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2009.00435.x
Mills, S. (2008) Language and Sexism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511755033
Miskolci, R. (2018) Exorcising a ghost: the interests behind the war on ‘gender ideology’. Cadernos Pagu 53. Retrieved on 26 July 2018 from https://bit.ly/2LoNdIa.
Miskolci, R. and Campana, M. (2017) ‘Ideologia de gênero’: notas para a genealogia de um pânico moral contemporâneo. Sociedade e Estado 32: 723–45. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0102-69922017.3203008
Motschenbacher, H. (2014) Grammatical gender as a challenge for language policy: the (im)possibility of non-heteronormative language use in German versus English. Language Policy 13(3): 243–61. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-013-9300-0
Ortellado, P., Solano, E. and Moretto, M (2016) Uma sociedade polarizada? In I. Jinkings, K. Doria and M. Cleto (eds) Por que Gritamos Golpe? 159–64. São Paulo: Boitempo.
Pauwels, A. (1998) Women Changing Language. London: Longman.
Pelkey, J. (2017) The Semiotics of X: Chiasmus, Cognition and Extreme Body Memory. London: Bloomsbury.
Penelope, J. (1982) Power and the opposition to feminist proposals for language change. College English 44(8): 840–8. https://doi.org/10.2307/377340
Pinto, J. and Badan, S. (2012). Feminismo e identidades no cerne dos princípios de pesquisa. Calidoscópio 10: 133–9. https://doi.org/10.4013/cld.2012.102.01
Rampton, B. (2005) Crossing: Language and Ethnicity among Adolescents. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.
Ratzinger, J. A. (1997) La Sal de la Tierra. Madrid: Libros Palabra.
Sacks, D. (2010) Alphabets: A Miscellany of Letters. London: Black Dog Publishing.
Safatle, V. (2018) ‘Não vai haver eleição no Brasil’. Radio France Internationele. Retrieved on 27 July 2018 from https://bit.ly/2LEyVSJ.
Scala, J. (2010). La Ideología del Género. Rosario: Ediciones Logos.
Silverstein, M. and Urban, G. (eds) (1996) Natural Histories of Discourse. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Soares, M. (2012) Português na escola: história de uma disciplina curricular. In M. Bagno (ed.) Linguística da Norma 155–78. São Paulo: Loyola.
Souza, J. (2016) A Radiografia do Golpe. Rio de Janeiro: Leya.
Weirich, A.-C. (2016) ‘Moldovan’ and feminist language politics: two distinct peripheral linguistic markets. In Julie Abbou and Fabienne Baider (eds) Gender, Language and the Periphery 285–322. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.264.11wei
Wodak, R. (2015). Politics of Fear: What Right-Wing Populist Discourses Mean. London: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446270073
Yaguello, M. (1978) Les Mots et le Femmes. Paris: Payot.
Zimman, L. (2017) Transgender language reform: some challenges and strategies for promoting trans-affirming, gender-inclusive language. Language and Discrimination 1(1): 85–105. https://doi.org/10.1558/jld.33139
Published
2019-11-21
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Borba, R. (2019). Gendered politics of enmity: language ideologies and social polarisation in Brazil. Gender and Language, 13(4), 423-448. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.38416
