Linguistic Factors Involved in the Continuity of Heterosexism in Chilean Society

Sara Balder

Abstract for paper presented at
The 12th Annual American University Conference on Lavender Languages and Linguistics
Washington, DC
February 11-13, 2005

In Chile, a Latin American country that is currently experiencing a newly-expanded aperture of communication, the creativity with which jokes and comments are made about gender and sexual minorities is both disturbing and intriguing. Drawing on linguistic mechanisms such as metonymy, metaphor, connotation, and inference, normative Chilean discourse depicts the value system surrounding popular beliefs about gender and sexual identity. In this paper, I examine both the semantic composition and the performative functions of normative Chilean discursive practices, addressing how these components endorse the marginalization of gender and sexual minorities. I examine linguistic forms such as verbal comments and address terms in an exploration of the social significance of such discourse as it is used in everyday social interaction.

Through an analysis of verbal comments such as se le quema el arroz (his rice is getting burnt), se le da vuelta el paragua (his umbrella gets reversed), le gusta por el camino de tierra (he likes to take the dirt road), and address terms such as maricón, maraca, culiado, and hueco, I demonstrate that heterosexist language used in Chile presupposes a direct relationship between gender identity and sexual orientation. I then concentrate on the complex system of performative functions embedded within such discourse, exposing examples of coercion, derogation of gender and sexual non-normativity, internal and external group functions, dominance and hegemonic masculinity, and normative gender work. My analysis conclusively demonstrates the normative social conceptualization of gender and sexuality in everyday Chilean discursive practices.

Sara Balder recently graduated from the Department of Linguistics at the University of Colorado. She can be reached at Sara.Balder@Colorado.EDU.

Colorado Research in Linguistics - Volume 18, Issue 1 - June 2005